Hina's Story: Kaeru
by Reyka Sivao
Summary: Yukina was different because of her unique heritage. But how did she come by that heritage? What made her mother abandon all the traditions of her people and go to the outside world, where she would meet the man who would become her children's father?
1. Unspoken

**Hina's Story: Kaeru**

Canon characters: Hina and Rui

Pairings: Hina with Yukina's and Hiei's father

Continuity: Anime/Manga/Speculation/Slight AU (Certain liberties taken with the details.)

Summary: Yukina was different because of her unique heritage. But how did she come by that heritage? What made her mother abandon all the traditions of her people and go to the outside world, where she would meet the man who would become her children's father? Prequel to Yukina's Story: Firestorm.

Author's note: Rui is the name I'm familiar with for Hina's friend. She's also known as Ree, though I can't seem to figure out exactly which translations use what.

About the title: "Kaeru" is a Japanese word meaning "to return" with connotations of "completing the circle". (At least according to my memories of Japanese class. If anyone has more complete information on the connotations of the word, I'd be thrilled to see it.) At this point, the actual "homecoming" part is just implied, but I'll see what I can do.

* * *

><p>Hina sat crying in the snow.<p>

No tears gems fell from her eyes, but her breath came in ragged sobs and her shoulders shook as she thought about the truth she was no longer able to deny.

She was crying because today was her birthday.

"Hina?"

Her friend's soft voice reached her through the evergreens and ice-plants of the forest where she was hiding.

"Hina, are you there?"

Hina didn't respond, only hugged herself closer.

"Hina…"

She felt her friend's hand on her shoulder, and finally looked up, steadying her breathing and trying to pretend that she hadn't been sobbing.

"Rui," she said, by way of greeting.

Rui sat down in the snow next to her.

"I came to wish you a happy birthday, but you weren't there."

For a long moment, neither spoke, letting a thousand unspoken thoughts hover around her words like the morning mists. Implications of implications lurked just beneath the surface, waiting for them to stop treading softly on tangential topics and face the core of the matter.

Finally, Hina took a long, not-quite-steady breath, and said, "One hundred and twenty."

"I know."

Again, they were silent.

Again, Hina was the one to break the silence.

"It's never going to happen."

Her voice was finally steady again, and there was a note of finality in it. Rui bowed her head, but did not deny it.

The silence stretched out like the horizon from the edge of the island—and, like that view, there was an element of danger to it.

This time, Rui broke it.

"What are you going to do?"

Hina swallowed.

"I…I can't stay."

Rui glanced sharply up at her. Hina bowed her head.

"I can't. Everything…everything here is focused on…children." Her voice caught on the last word.

"I _want_ children, Rui! You remember how we both dreamed of holding our first daughters in our arms. When that day came early for you, I…I was happy for you, but…" Her voice trailed off as she wrapped her arms in front of her, holding an imaginary infant, rocking her gently in her arms. She was brought out of her reverie by her friend's hand resting on her arm.

"I thought I was just late. I thought for sure, eventually…" She clenched her fists and closed her eyes. "I thought…"

She opened her eyes again and turned a little to meet Rui's gaze.

"Rui, I'm a hundred and twenty. There's no way I'm ever going to have children now. I'm…I'm barren."

Rui bowed her head, but said nothing. What was there to say? They both knew the facts of life. Women when through puberty and conceived their first child at around their hundredth year. Rui had been unusually early, being only eighty-five when she had borne her first daughter. Rui and Hina were the same age, and so should have had children of about the same age…but Rui's daughter was thirty-five, and Hina was still daughterless.

Still, she should say something.

"Perhaps you're simply—"

"—late?" finished Hina, and then gave a mirthless laugh. "I've been telling myself that for twenty years."

The silence lengthened with the shadows of the trees. The two friends sat there for hours, never speaking, hardly moving, until they seemed to have frozen into the icy landscape. The forest darkened as the sun sank beneath the level of their island. Though the Makai had some spectacular sunsets, they would not see them here. For that, they would have to travel to edge of their floating island and look down on the land that was still covered in sunlight.

Finally, Hina roused herself. Standing, she brushed away the snow that had settled itself in her long blue hair, and then offered a hand to Rui.

"I'm leaving in three days," she said, not meeting her friend's eyes. "Will you help me?"

Rui took her hand and rose without changing her expression.

"Why three days?"

"In three days, we will be close enough to Mount Hinome to make a bridge." She let go of her hand and turned away slightly. "But I won't be able to do it by myself."

Rui looked at her friend for a long moment.

"Will you come back?"

Hina closed her eyes.

"I don't know."

Rui closed her eyes as well, and was quiet for a long moment before responding.

"I will."

Hina turned back, gratefulness filling her eyes.

"Just…please, promise me. If it does turn out to be temporary…if you are just late…"

Hina nodded. "If I get pregnant…"

"Come back," Rui finished.

"I will try."

The two friends turned and headed back into the dusky forest behind them. They had said all there was to be said. All there was left to do was act.


	2. Maiden Voyage

Author's note: If anyone was wondering about "Mount Hinome", I made it up. "Hi no me" (which is a phrase I stole from Hunter X Hunter) means "eye(s) of fire". I figure it's probably a dormant volcano, but it isn't important. At least, I think not.

* * *

><p>The morning sun glimmered and danced across the frozen cliffs of Koorime. As it shot through the ever-icy air, it wrapped around two small figures trudging up the slope towards the edge of their world.<p>

The brilliance of the morning sky was in stark contrast to the mood of the pair. The one in front had an expression of grim anticipation, while the one following her, though her expression was neutral, had an air of sorrowful resignation.

As the two approached the edge of the cliff, they could finally take in the fullness of the view below them. For the most part, the ice maidens stayed away from the edge, so they had had little opportunity to appreciate how truly majestic the view was. The landscape poured out beneath them, rivers flowing into forests petering into fields dotted with tiny settlements that might very well have been cities. Everything was dyed with brilliant colors: A thousand shades of green, reds and purples, dark blues, softened by the calmer browns and greys. It was a very different sight from that of their home, with its palette of white, ice blue, pine green, and the pale pastel colors picked up by their ice.

However, it wasn't the broad outline of the landscape that interested them, but something closer to hand. On their right, not far below the ground they stood on, was the top of a giant mountain. Their vantage point was the closest they could easily get to it.

The two women slid the packs they had been wearing off their backs and got down to business.

Hina drew herself up, all emotion draining from her face as she raised her hand toward the mountaintop. Her eyes glowed blue, and a sheet of ice shot from her hand to the edge of the cliff, and from there down towards the mountain.

Rui watched for a moment, and then reluctantly raised her hand and joined her ice to Hina's. Together, the two women paved an icy bridge to the outside world.

Finally, it was complete. Together, the ice maidens dropped their hands and gazed at their creation. It would not hold for long, they knew. The movement of their floating island would shear the bridge in half. It was now or never.

Silently, Rui picked up the pack she had been carrying and gave the few items inside to Hina.

Hina finished repacking her bag and turned toward the ice bridge. Rui stopped her with a hand on the shoulder. For an instant, neither moved.

Then, Rui pulled Hina into a tight embrace. The two ice maidens hugged for a timeless moment, and then let go.

Hina turned again toward her future.

Rui remained where she was.

Hina stepped up onto the bridge they had made, steadied herself, and pushed off. She flew down the bridge, with her long, loose hair flying behind her in the wind.

She was gone in an instant, but Rui stayed on the edge of the cliff for a long time. The ice bridge crumbled, gone as if it had never been. The icy shards fell to the earth like glass daggers.

And among them, unnoticed by anyone, fell a single, shining tear.


	3. Contemplations

Hina's first few days in the outside world were uneventful. The mountaintop environment was inhospitable to most demons, so she didn't meet anyone as she travelled down the mountain. She was honestly a little disappointed—she'd maintained some hope of meeting fellow ice demons up here.

That was her plan, inasmuch as she had a plan at all. She knew there were other ice demons out here, and she hoped to find a group of them willing to accept her, and make a new life for herself among them. She had quite gotten good at using her ice powers, and thought she would enjoy learning from other types of ice-users, and perhaps teaching them a few things as well.

Still, by the time she reached the bottom of the mountain, doubts and second thoughts were starting to flutter around in the back of her mind. Her determination had carried her this far, but as she approached the base of the mountain, she was finding it harder and harder to set aside the fact that she had no real destination. Mount Hinome had _been_ her destination, the target she had pinned all her hopes on, and when no obvious path showed itself from there, she found herself lost and adrift. With the desperation of a drowning woman grasping at a life preserver, she had set her eyes at the base of the mountain as her new goal.

Now that goal too was petering out. As the terrible emptiness of aimlessness threatened to rise around her, Hina paused to logically consider her options.

She still had plenty of food—the top of the mountain had home to many of the same ice-plants the Koorime cultivated. They were plants such as no one in the human world had ever seen, with fractal patterns only occasionally dividing into discernible leaves and stems, almost every part of them transparent or frosty white veined with shades of purple or pastel blue.

Hina's favorite was _chimi, _the bloodfruit. The three-lobed fruit was blood-red, a rare color in her icy world, and grew nestled in the center of an ice-fern, with its spiraling pattern of fronds that spiked out into impossibly fine points. The ice maidens had to harvest the fruit just before it was ripe, otherwise the flowerlike fronds, tightly coiled around their precious cargo, would suddenly snap backwards, shattering the plant and launching the spinning fruit high into the air. When it landed, it too would shatter, dispersing its seeds to the winds.

Hina still had several _chimi_ from the top of the mountain, but they, and all the other familiar, ordinary plants of her homeland, had long since left been behind. She had left the snow behind, too, which was a new experience for her. Bare rocks and the beginnings of small green plants surrounded her now.

As she was calculating how many days' supply of food she had (finally deciding it was about four), she noticed a nearby ledge that would make a convenient vantage point. She hadn't stopped to assess her surroundings since she had come below the cloudline, so she stepped out onto the ledge to try to find somewhere to go.

She was in luck. Off near the horizon, easily within even the most leisurely of four days' walks, lay what looked very much like a city.

Hina had never been to a true city. She had grown up in a village, or possibly a town, if you were generous with the definition. There was no settlement on Koorime anywhere near large enough to be called a city.

As she set off down the last slope of the mountain, Hina reviewed what she knew about typical cities, and how she should go about looking for the information she wanted once she got there.

She might never have been to the outside world, but she had not come completely unprepared. There was a fair amount of information about the outside world available in the country's large library, though most of it was very old, collected in the days before the Koorime had become so isolationist, when there had still been contact and travel between them and the outside world. Now, though, Hina was the first traveler in over a hundred years to reach the outside world. She could just barely remember when the last one had come back, and had known even then that it was a rare thing indeed. It hadn't been expressly forbidden—it still wasn't—but the elders hadn't exactly been happy with her. The woman had ended up leaving again, never to return.

The library had become one of Hina's refuges as the years after her hundredth birthday had gone by. One by one, everyone her age had had children, and then everyone with a new daughter had been younger than her. She had become more and more cut off from the one thing they were all supposed to have in common. People had begun ignoring her, had stopped inviting her to do anything. No one had said anything to her unless she spoke to her first. Only Rui had persisted, making the effort to see her when she was invisible to everyone else. At least she would now be free of that burden.

With rejection on every side, Hina had lost herself in stories of the outside world, or in one of the academic pursuits of her people, or else by practicing her ice powers on her own. As a result, she had become both well-read and extremely good at controlling her abilities. The former, she hoped, would help her find her way in this world, while the latter would keep her alive long enough to do so.

Once she reached the city, she would find an inn or tavern—she did have some money that should be accepted out here—and try to find information there. Along the way, she would keep her senses on the surrounding youki, trying to find someone with ice-type energy. She wasn't at all sure she would be able to tell the difference—after all, she had never felt any _other_ type—and she knew it was unwise to simply approach a stranger like that. Still, she didn't many options if she wanted to make a life out here, and besides, what did she have to lose? Only her life, which had been growing steadily more unbearable for decades. Either she would succeed in finding a place out here, or she would fail and succumb to one of the many dangers the ice mothers warned their daughters about. Either way, she would win.

With all these thoughts filing through her head, Hina walked on towards the setting sun. The sky, always red in this world, was beginning to darken behind her, but ahead of her it was full of brilliant purples and blues and yellows, forming a sunset the likes of which her sheltered island companions had never even imagined.

* * *

><p>Author's note: If you're having trouble picturing the plants, try googling "fractals" or "fractal art". That'll give you some idea what I was going for—plus, they're really cool.<p> 


	4. Assumptions

Author's note: A big thanks to reviewers Miyuki Jaganashi, for reviewing all three chapters, and Graphospasm, for adding her kind reviews to both my stories. I never knew how inspiring those little messages could be. :)

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Assumptions<p>

The city was big and bustling and busy.

Hina had never seen so many people in her whole life—the population of the city vastly outnumbered all of the residents of Koorime. Only her natural ice maiden's composure kept her from gaping at all of the strange things around her. She tried to sense everything at once: seeing all of the strange forms of the demons around her, furred and feathered and scaled; hearing the tumult of voices mixed with the sounds of footsteps and animals and carts rolling by; smelling and tasting the air around her, filled with the aroma of food as well as other, less savory scents; feeling a thousand types of energy pressing around her, all familiar, yet none exactly so.

The city was primarily medieval in form, with stone and brick as the principal building material and animals as the main mode of transportation, but there were a few anachronistic elements thrown in as well, such as the telephone wires that stretched over the more affluent parts of the city. To Hina, though, it was all equally foreign.

She turned down one of the narrower side-streets, trying to find some respite from the chaos. There were fewer people here, so she concentrated on examining each person's energy signature as she walked, all but closing her eyes to help with her concentration. Each energy signature had a different feel to it, a feel that her mind interpreted as something like color. Here was the colorless green idea of a plant user; there was sparking yellowness of a lighting wielder; a little further on she felt the not-brown of an earth-type youki.

There were others that she couldn't identify—like the pulsing purpleness a street over, or the constantly shifting one behind her that she couldn't even tag a metaphorical color to—but she was pleased to recognize so many without ever having encountered them before.

As she let her senses brush ahead, she finally caught a sense of what she was looking for.

There!

She could feel the energy, so much more familiar than the others, coming from the center of a small group not far in front of her. She sped up a little to try and catch a glimpse of the ice-user, so she could judge whether it would be wise to approach. She angled ahead a little more, finally catching sight of her goal.

And promptly stopped short in shock.

The ice-master was taller than her, but had the same cold blue and cool green hair so common to her people—though they generally had just one or the other, not a headful of the one with a single long bang of the other. The demon's expression, too, was perfectly familiar to her, a coolly neutral one with just a hint of distain in those ice-blue eyes. The clothes were not the usual ones worn by the ice maidens, being were much more form-fitting than the loose kimonos they favored, but that wasn't what had caused Hina's shock.

Rather, it was what the form-fitting clothing revealed.

Thick pads covered too-broad shoulders, and the dark blue fabric that fell from them covered a completely flat chest. From there, it covered a pair of white pants as it draped around hips that weren't nearly wide enough, and then fell modestly to almost knee-length in front and back.

This ice-user…wasn't female.

Hina's mind whirled, racing over what she knew of the biology, culture, and norms of a the outside world, and as it did, she started to realize just how badly she'd miscalculated. How in any of the three worlds had she missed something so obvious?

She went again over her nebulous plans, seeing them as if for the first time. When she had pictured joining an ice clan or dojo, she had been picturing a group of women. She should have known better—she knew that the male-centered culture of the outside made the latter unlikely, and their biology made the former completely impossible.

Yet somehow her assumptions about how things ought to be had completely overshadowed the facts she knew about how things _were_.

Taking a breath, Hina pulled herself together. The only outward signs of her world shifting under her had been a slight stagger as she stopped in the middle of the road, and eyes open a fraction wider than usual. No one around her had even noticed anything wrong, but by ice maiden standards, she felt that to be an uncharacteristic slip of composure. Hiding her embarrassment behind her usual calm face, Hina turned down an even smaller street to make sure her self-control was firmly back in place before she continued on to her original plan to find a good place to ask for information.

She never got the chance.

"Well, what have we here?"

The gravelly voice startled her—she had been focusing too much awareness on inner matters, and had neglected to pay enough attention to the outside world.

"She does look a little lost, doesn't she?"

The second voice was much higher, almost a screech. Its owner was what Hina assumed was a bird-type demon, given that it was completely covered in feathers.

Hina looked around, assessing her situation. Along with the two who had spoken, there was one other demon in the alley, and all three were staring directly at her. Judging by the feel of their auras, none of them were very strong, but they did have her outnumbered.

"Excuse me," she said with careful politeness. "I am not lost. If you'll let me pass, I'll be on my way with no trouble."

Her phrasing was neutral, but her cold voice held a note of warning.

A warning that was apparently lost on the demons in front of her.

"Much as we'd like to," the screechy demon guffawed, "you have something much too valuable for that." It pointed at her throat.

Surprised, Hina glanced down in spite of herself. Valuable? All she was wearing around her throat was her mother's…

Her thoughts ground to a halt. She knew that too. Why hadn't she realized how foolish it was to wear a hiruseki stone in public? While they were ubiquitous on Koorime, they were extremely rare outside. That rarity had been the force behind several unpleasant incidents in Koorime history—a history she was extremely familiar with.

"That is…" She paused, searching for the right term. "—A family heirloom." Her mother's face flashed in front of her, bringing with it a flash of pain. She had died young, leaving Hina without even one sister. Rui had been the closest thing to family she had left. "I do not intend to part with it," she finished, carefully tucking the gem inside the collar of her kimono.

"Sshe doessn't intend to part withh it," mocked the third demon, its hissing voice emphasized by the thin, forked tongue emerging from its scaled mouth.

"It doesn't matter," growled the first voice. "She will part with it, one way or another. So," it said, switching its reference back to Hina, "which will it be?"

In answer, Hina's eyes glowed blue.

"Feissty one," observed the reptilian demon.

Hina held her powers in check, waiting for them to make the first move. She still hoped to end this peacefully, particularly since she had never used her abilities on a fight—or anything else in a physical fight, for that matter. When the ice maidens fought, their weapons were words—cruel, cold, precision strikes of language—but not ice. That was used for many things, from building their dwellings and public buildings, to intricate sculptures created by the artists among them, to tending their fields, to sending messages to the other tiny settlements of koorime, but not for violence.

Still, Hina had explored the more destructive side of her ice-wielding during many of the long hours she had spent trying to forget about her life. She had a fairly good idea of how it _could_ be used to fight, but with no experience, the weaker demons would have the advantage, especially since they had both numbers and physical strength on their side.

Her hopes for a peaceful resolution were dashed when the snake-tongued demon leapt towards her with a war cry.

Instantly, Hina released her hold, and jagged chunks of ice flew from her hand towards the snake-demon. Its war cry turned to a cry of pain as the ice smashed into it. With matching cries of rage, the other two demons leapt forward, and she had to turn to fight off all three at once.

It was much more difficult than she would have anticipated. She had to try to predict and deflect three sets of attacks while trying to counterattack, and to make it worse, each attacker had a completely different attack style.

The wounded snake-demon's aura pulsed an angry purple as it kept trying to tear at her with wicked-looking claws and teeth. She formed a great sheet of ice around her left arm to block its attacks, some combination of the feel of its energy and half-remembered biology instinctively warning her not to let it even scratch her.

The gravelly-voiced demon, a big, muscular one with a single horn on its head, was the only one who was visibly armed. It swung a blacksmith's hammer, so large it might as well have been the anvil, trying to hit her like she was an annoying fly. These she had no choice but to dodge—there nothing she could do with her ice that would keep one of those blows from crushing her.

Meanwhile, the bird demon's feathered arms allowed to rise into the air—the thought flitted across Hina's mind that they really shouldn't be able to provide enough lift—and it rained down attacks from above, one of which grazed her arm while she was blocking the snake's attack.

She thought she was doing well enough, parrying or dodging almost all of the blows. Unfortunately, she was so busy just keeping up that she didn't even register the fact that none of them had even begun using their special abilities.

The first demon, with the gravelly voice, was the first to abandon simple physical attacks in favor of energy-based assault, though the other two were quick to follow. It was completely unexpected, and it was only through a sheer stroke of luck that Hina wasn't killed instantly.

With a roar of frustration, the gravelly demon made a sharp upward jabbing motion with its free arm, which Hina ignored…at least, until the ground under her rose with an equally sharp jolt. She made a valiant effort to maintain her balance, but just as the bird demon opened its mouth to scream at her, she fell hard to a ground that was suddenly much too far away.

And the building behind her exploded.

What she had thought was a scream of frustration had actually been an attack. The bird demon's element wasn't air, as she had assumed, but _sound_.

She rolled, ignoring the pain in her ribs, which had almost certainly cracked with the force of her landing, and just missed another rising mass of earth. This would never do. If she wanted to survive, she couldn't fight a battle where even the ground around her was an enemy.

Mustering all her strength, she managed to get to one knee facing the earth demon. Drawing on all the control she'd attained in her hours of practice, she sharpened her points of ice to needle-sharp, and let them fly before the earth-user could attack again.

The icicles tore through the demon's chest, not even giving it time to scream. Hina turned back to the remaining two even before the body finishing hitting the ground—she couldn't afford to ignore them now.

She was right not to ignore them. The bird demon screamed again, and Hina threw herself at the ground, ignoring the stabbing pain in her ribs. But she wasn't quite quick enough this time. As she heard the shriek pass above her she felt a most disorienting sensation wash over her, with her vision distorting and her stomach twisting, which was followed immediately by a sharp pain in her shoulder.

She tried to move her arm, but no amount of pain tolerance would let her use it—it was completely dead. Instead, she reformed her ice shield around her left arm and help it in guard in front of her, trying to figure out a way out of this situation.

Her whole body ached, with sharper pains from her ribs and shoulder acting as counterpoint. She only had the use of her non-dominant hand, which would make it extremely difficult to both attack and defend at the same time. She risked a glance around—the few other beings who had been in the alley with them had long since vacated the area, quite reasonably choosing to mind their own business rather than risk getting on the wrong side of a fight.

The moment of tense stillness was broken by the hiss of the snake demon, whose voice had grown almost as cold as the glaciers of Koorime.

"You killed Yurasssu." The demon took a step forward, claws curled menacingly. "You musst die."

With that, he opened his mouth wider than it had any right to go. Hina cringed, half-expecting a sound blast like his companion's.

But that didn't happen. For a moment, nothing did, except that the not-color of his aura flared up around him, pulsing its not-purpleness ominously.

Then something began emerging from the reptilian demon's mouth, a faint cloud or mist that rapidly began expanding and darkening until its true color matched the exact hue of his energy.

_Oh no._

Hina's eyes widened, and she stumbled backward, turned, and ran.


	5. Collision

Author's Note: Short chapter this time, but hey, at least it was a quick update, right? *crickets*

To Graphospasm, who asked about the male ice-wielder: I meant to include a note last time, but that was actually a cameo of Touya. He's just in a slightly different outfit. And if anyone's wondering what he's doing out in public so long before the big unmasking thing...secret identity. Yup. (He won't become important in this story, I don't think.)

UPDATE: Well, that was embarrassing. I've had the wrong version of this chapter up for a week and never noticed! *hangs head*

I thought I'd fixed it before, but now here's the EDITED version of this chapter, up for your enjoyment! Or ignore-ance! Whichever!

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Collision<p>

The wind whipped through Hina's hair as she ran, ignoring the protests of her aching body. She skidded around a corner, stumbling, trying to escape the certain death that was trying to ensnare her.

She was in one of the larger streets now, dodging around pedestrian traffic and carts being pulled by all manner of different creatures. A cry of rage screeched over her head and crashed into the building in front of her even as she skidded sideways to avoid it.

But it wasn't the sonic blasts she was running from. Rather, it was the sound demon's companion that she feared.

He was a ways behind her, but still far too close. He exhaled his purple miasma with a power born of rage, and it was gaining on her even faster than he was.

Her first glimpse of the purple cloud had triggered memories of one of the types of demons she'd read about—she cursed herself for not recognizing his aura alone.

He was clearly a poison-element demon—and they didn't have to rely on strong energy to kill. She had underestimated him, and she only hoped she could live to regret it.

"You will pay for thisss," he hissed at her, somehow able to speak around the purple fog. As the cloud spread through the more populated area, shouts started ringing out in the crowd. A massive stampede went up as demons pushed past each other to escape the gathering mist. Even as they ran, some fell to the ground, gasping and choking as the miasma ensnared them.

Hina ran on, her need to find the easiest path taking her downhill, back towards the outskirts of the city. It was when she saw the big, bustling gate of the city that she realized that this wasn't going to work. How could she outrun them when she had no goal, no refuge in sight? What would she do even if she managed to get outside those gates? That would only make her an easier target.

With a sense of resignation, she realized that her only chance for survival was to turn and fight—and that it was a slim chance indeed. She would have to kill the snake demon before his cloud of poisonous gas killed her, and the air around her was already starting to turn a pale shade of purple.

All of this took a bare instant to pass though her mind, and even before it had finished, she was wheeling around to face the demons again.

She was starting to feel lightheaded as the poisonous mist engulfed her, but she had enough strength left for one final attack. She gathered it up, willing her ice into the fine points she had used earlier, but the response was sluggish. The best she could manage were jagged chunks.

But she was out of time. With the her last ounce of strength, she flung the ice outward, willing it to cross the distance with sufficient force left to kill the poison user.

She never found out if it was enough.

The bird demon dove out of the sky, shrieking, and her ice shards shattered into a million pieces.

Hina fell to her knees, gasping, as the noxious purple cloud surrounded her. It smelled like death and decay. Her vision swam as the world turned dark around her, which must have been why she started hallucinating. Why else would the sky have started burning?

Swirling yellow flames raced up from somewhere behind her and collided with the malevolent purple of the fog, twisting and grappling together as they fought for mastery of the air. It was as though the blazing sunsets of this world had erupted to violent life around her, fighting over her with reckless abandon. The heat of their clash burned Hina's exposed skin, but she couldn't even muster up enough strength to raise her good arm to protect her face.

As she slipped away from consciousness, the last thing she saw was a dark figure step up beside her, arm raised toward the fiery vortex above.


	6. Convergence

Chapter 6: Convergence

Hina drifted back towards consciousness with frustrating slowness.

The first thing she became aware of was pain, though not as much as she expected. Or—had she expected anything? If she was in pain, did that mean she wasn't dead? And why did she think she should be dead?

Lying there with her eyes still closed, Hina fought for memory. There—the poison user. That was the key. She had lost…she really should be dead. So why wasn't she?

But when she searched her memory further, all she could find was yellow fire—it must have been fire— the yellow fire, burning her skin…and though she hurt, she didn't that burning pain. It must have been an effect of the poison, a dying dream.

Which brought her back to the fact that she wasn't dead.

Hina tried to assess her condition, trying to keep her mind moving in an orderly fashion.

Her arm was still mostly numb—she couldn't feel the injury on her arm at all—but when she tried to move her fingers, they twitched in response.

Her chest—yes, the ribs she's broken in the fall. She remembered that. But…there was something off. After a moment, she realized that there was an unfamiliar tightness around her torso. Had someone bandaged her?

The haze in her mind retreated a little more, and it occurred to Hina to wonder where she was. She was lying on something softer than bare ground, and something seemed to be covering her…

She blinked her eyes open, only to find a worried-looking grey pair staring back at her. For an instant, the blue and grey sets of eyes locked on each other. Then, with a start, the owner of the grey pair jumped back and darted out of sight, leaving Hina only with the impression of a young face, framed by matching silver-grey hair.

Hina sat up slowly, warily. Whatever she had expected—Attack? Capture? Left for dead?—this wasn't it. Who was this young one? What was going on?

But when she looked down, a little of her wariness faded, only to be replaced with more confusion.

She had been right about the bandages—not only were her ribs bound under her kimono, but her right arm was in a sling.

Even more baffling, the injury on her arm, the one from the bird demon's first attack…it was completely gone.

When she noticed that, she also realized that none of the bruises and scrapes that should have marked her were anywhere to be found. Had a healer seen to her? If so, why were her ribs still broken and her arm still numb? And why would anyone out here do something like that? She was no one to anyone.

Before she could continue her train of thought, she was interrupted by a sudden increase in light. She held up her left hand to shield her eyes, and a soft voice came from that direction.

"I see you're finally awake."

The voice was a low tenor…how could any voice possibly go that low?

The light dimmed again, and Hina looked up. The light had come from a raised flap—Hina now realized she was in a large tent—and, in front of it, stood a man.

She stared at him, completely lost for words. She had never spoken to a man before, and she had no idea what to expect. The accounts she had read had varied—some said men were violent brutes who should be avoided at all costs, while others had taken a more neutral tone, saying they were necessary to the biology of the outside races.

She had been shocked when she'd seen the male ice-wielder (the demons she had fought had barely rated more than animals), but she thought she'd accustomed herself to the idea of interacting with males in this world.

She hadn't.

Instead, she just stared.

The ice demon had at least had some features in common with her people. This specimen was also taller than her, but there the similarities ended. His hair fell in a shaggy mane around his shoulders, and was completely black, except where the light hit it—there, it glowed a faint red. His expression, too, was unfamiliar. It called up very old, very faint memories…something about her mother, she wondered? It certainly wasn't any of the more common expressions among the koorime: not distain or arrogance (the ones most often directed at her over the last decades), not one of focus or analysis, not one of calm serenity. Rather, it seemed something…warmer.

The most striking feature about him, however, was his eyes.

They were large and completely red. Hina would have expected them to look…dangerous, at least, if not outright malevolent.

Instead, they were…gentle.

Hina found it thoroughly unnerving.

"Are you feeling well?" he inquired, stepping toward her and sitting down on a small cushion near where she was sitting, which she now recognized as on a mat on the ground, covered with a blanket.

"I…" Hina started, and then stopped. "Where am I?" she tried again.

Probably not the best start, she realized. What she _should_ have said, she still wasn't sure, but that hadn't sounded very polite, and it probably wasn't wise to antagonize potential allies—or worse, potential enemies.

Before she could say anything else, however, the man inclined his head and answered.

"You are in a tent in a camp on the outskirts of Mashou City." He shifted his weight to a more comfortable position. "And to answer some of your other questions, no, you are not a prisoner; yes, you have been seen to by a healer, more or less, and the boy left to summon me."

_Telepath?_ Hina wondered (though the thought vied for her attention with the strange sound of the word _boy_) —but when he didn't respond to her thought, she dismissed the idea. But…who…?

"Who are you?" Hina asked before she could stop herself. "I mean—" she tried again, but the man raised his hand.

"Forgive me. The host should introduce himself first. I am called Kirin."

Hina's eyes widened. Kirin? As in the legendary dragon-chimera? She had read a number of different accounts of the creature, though she didn't know which, if any, were true. All of them gave it a dragon's head and a close connection to fire, and most said they marked the arrival of a great sage. The other animals that made up the chimera's body varied; some said it had the body of a tiger, many said the body of a deer, some added the tail of an ox, or the scales of a fish, or the hooves of a horse. All accounts, however, agreed that the kirin was generally a gentle creature, but one that would not hesitate to bring fiery judgment on the wicked.

Kirin was watching her face carefully, seeming to read her like an open book…which Hina found unsettling. Among the ice maidens, reserve was valued, and standards of politeness dictated that people carefully ignore any slip until it became too obvious to overlook.

Still, whatever Kirin saw on her face, he kept it to himself. Instead, he gestured back over his shoulder as if he'd never paused. "And I am the leader off this camp." He looked back at her, expectantly.

It took Hina a moment to realize she was supposed to reciprocate. "I…" she tried, and then, "My name is Hina."

"Hina," he said, inclining his head. "Pleased to meet you."

"And you," said Hina, finally catching up to the conversation, the simplicity of formal questions and required answers putting her a little more at ease.

"May I ask where you've come from?" he said.

Hina hesitated an instant, and then replied "Mount Hinome."

Kirin raised his eyebrows a fraction, but nodded, accepting her answer…though he had to know that the mountain was uninhabited.

Before either could continue, the light once again brightened. The silver-haired youth poked his head into the tent.

"Kirin, sir? You asked me to call you…" he trailed off apologetically.

"Yes, thank you," said Kirin, rising to leave.

But there was one other question that weighed on Hina's mind.

"Why?"

Kirin paused and looked back at her. "Because you have potential."

Before Hina could ask him to clarify, he turned back again and said, "But that can wait. For tonight, at least, you are our guest. There," he pointed, "are water and clean clothes, if you'd like to get cleaned up. When you're finished, please, come and join us for dinner." With that, he turned again and left.

Hina rose slowly, considering his words. Crossing to where he had indicated, careful of her ribs along the way, she found a pitcher and basin of warm water—too warm for her comfort, actually. Using a little of her still-weak energy, she cooled it to a more comfortable temperature. Turning from it for a moment, she turned her attention to the pile of folded fabric beside it, which turned out to be a washcloth and a loose robe that looked like it would fit her. The style was similar to her normal robes, but she had never owned a garment like this—it was the brilliant red of the _chimi_ fruits she loved so much.

Hina sat back of her heels, wondering. She was being treated better by complete strangers, from what was supposed to be the corrupt outside world, than she ever had been by her own people. She couldn't help but wonder if that said more about these strangers or the Koorime—and whether there was a catch.


	7. Questions

Author's note: I'm going to try to update this story every Thursday night (/Friday morning). Hope you enjoy!

Thanks again to reviewers Graphospasm and Miyuki Jaganshi!

Also, I think I'll take this opportunity to mention that I welcome nit-picky reviews. If I have typos, grammar errors, or weird formatting, I'd rather know about it!

Oh, and I'd like to apologise for the last chapter: I messed up and accidentally posted an unedited version. I thought I'd fixed it, but it stayed up like that for a week! *ducks head in shame* Anyway, if you want to see the version I actually intended to post, it's up now.

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: Questions<p>

When Hina emerged from the tent, she was met by the grey-haired youth who had called Kirin away—and who she now recognized as the same one who had been with her when she woke.

"H-Hello, miss," said the boy. "Um…Kirin asked me to show you around." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Ah…pleased to meet you. My name is Koyuki, but everyone calls me Koyu."

Awkwardly, he stuck out his hand.

Hina hesitated, not because she was unfamiliar with the handshake—she had read about it, though the Koorime didn't use it—but, rather, because of memories of what she'd learned of outside biology rose to the front of her mind. It took most of her self control to suppress a shudder of revulsion at the thought of touching him. He was anathema to everything about her people! He was _male! _

Still…

Didn't she owe her life to these people?

Didn't she owe them common courtesy, at the very least?

She reached out and shook his hand.

"Hina," she said. "Pleased to meet you as well."

Koyu flashed her a lopsided grin, which didn't really set her more at ease. What did these people want with her? Why were they so…different?

"Come on," said Koyu, and she followed him toward the center of the camp.

There were about a dozen tents, arranged in a roughly circular pattern, the center of which appeared to be their destination. They were surprisingly colorful, with shades of red and blue and orange and purple, in stripes and solids and unpatterned mixes of color.

She caught glimpses of a few other people, but surely not enough. Where was everyone?

She glanced back over her shoulder and saw the great gates of the city—the same ones she had seen from the inside while she was still running for her life.

"Oh…" said Koyu, suddenly remembering something. "…did you have any questions? Kirin said to answer your questions, if you had any." He straightened up, looking eager.

Hina did, in spades.

Still, now that she had the opportunity to ask, she found it hard to put any of them to words.

Finally, she settled on a big one that she hadn't actually considered before.

"What happened?" she asked.

"You mean…after you fought the poison demon?"

Hina nodded. Did _everything_ have to be said out here? Could he not have inferred that?

"Well…actually, I saw when they first attacked you. I went to get Kirin, because I thought he might be…interested." He ducked his head a little.

"And then…well, by the time I found him, you were almost to the gates, and he had already seen you anyway. The poison-guy was trying to poison the whole city, and Kirin really likes this city! So he burned away the poison."

Hina stopped walking.

"He…burned away the poison?"

Koyu stopped and looked back at her.

"Yeah…oh! Yeah, he can do that. He calls it 'foxfire'. He can do it to people too…only he wouldn't do it to you, because it burned you before." He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not supposed to do that."

Hina's brow furrowed. It hadn't been a dream. She looked at the back of her hand, remembering the heat burning her skin.

"Is…something wrong?"

Hina looked up. "You said it burned me."

"Yes…it did. Pretty bad, too."

"Then…what happened?"

He rubbed the back of his head again. "I…fixed it."

Hina looked at him in surprise. This child…?

"You are a healer?"

He looked down.

"Not…exactly. I kinda…accidentally did it this one time, and we didn't have a healer, and so…" He shrugged.

Hina considered him more closely, this time extending her energy senses towards his aura…which had a distinctly familiar flavor to it.

Koyu shuffled his feet under her gaze, and she looked away again.

"All ice demons have that potential."

He looked at her in surprise. "Really? I…never knew that." He looked down sadly, and then up again hopefully.

"Does that mean…that you can teach me? Please say that you'll teach me!"

Hina almost had to step back from the intensity of his question. Teach? Did he think…?

"I…I am not a healer," she said, trying to regain control of her voice.

"But you knew! You have to know more than me!"

Hina shook her head. "I only know how to heal myself, and even then there is much that is beyond me."

"But you know _that!_ I only know what I've been able to figure out!"

He took a deep breath.

"That's why I only helped your bruises and burns and that one cut on your arm. I don't even know what's wrong with your shoulder, and your ribs..." His face flushed. "I…didn't trust myself not to make things worse. I just got Shizuku to bandage them for me."

Hina couldn't figure out why he would need to call someone else to bandage her when he was clearly the camp's resident medical expert. Still he had a point: she _could_ fix her broken ribs, once she regained enough energy, and probably her shoulder too. Besides, he _had_ healed her, even if not completely. So what if she couldn't completely train him? It wasn't exactly what she's pictured when she'd thought about sharing techniques…though he _was_ an ice demon.

"I…will see what I can do."

Koyu looked at her with gratitude nearly pouring down his face. Really, did these outsiders have _no_ sense of reserve?

Glancing around to avoid looking at his face, she suddenly realized that it was a lot darker than it had been a few minutes ago.

"How long was I unconscious?" she asked, glancing around and finding the beginnings of a sunset off to her right.

"Almost eight hours," said Koyu, mostly distracted. "It took that long for your energy to restore your system after you were poisoned."

Longer than she'd expected, but at least it hadn't been days.

As she looked around the darkening camp, Hina realized it was brighter than it should be up ahead.

"What is that?" asked Hina, pointing to the bright light that glowed in the growing shadows just behind the last tent.

"Oh," said Koyu. "That's the bonfire. We should really be there by now. Come on!"

He broke into a run, only to slow down again when he remembered Hina's injured state. Nothing short of another bout with imminent death could force her to run again before she healed her ribs.

* * *

><p>And there's your...cliffhanger? Huh.<p>

Anyway, I feel like my writing's been shakier than it was the first few chapters...was I rambling here? I'd love to know what people think!


	8. Goals

Author's note: Sorry for the late update...the document uploader wasn't working last night.

Also, I totally just realized that there's actually a canon character named Kirin. He was so minor that I'd completely forgotten about him...but I guess that means I picked an acceptable name for canon! ^_^;;

(I briefly considered making them the same person, but...no. Not even. No relation.)

Anyway, without further ado, enjoy your tardy chapter.

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: Goals<p>

When they finally rounded the last tent, Hina stopped short in amazement.

In front of her was one of the most incredible sights she had ever beheld, and with everything she had seen since coming to the outside world, that was saying something.

A great heaping pile of logs—it looked like a whole tree's worth—lay in the clearing at the center of the camp, but what drew her attention was the sight above it.

Fire.

It must be. She had read about the theory behind it, even seen paintings of it, but the reality made everything else pale in comparison. No wonder she had mistaken it for a hallucination.

She had always thought fire would have some…_substance _to it,perhaps like water. But this? It was as insubstantial as mist. It swirled hypnotically, there one instant, somewhere else the next; sometimes swiftly, sometimes lazily. It hardly even seemed to touch the wood it fed on, seeming to simply hover in the air starting a few inches above it, though she knew this was simply an illusion caused by a layer of superheated air. She could almost see patterns in it, but every time she thought she was about to get the hang of it, it slipped away again. For a moment, she fancied that it was made up of curved planes, bending and twisting in an invisible wind, and then that illusion broke apart in a shower of golden sparks.

"Miss Hina?"

Koyu's voice broke the spell. Hina inhaled, remembering where she was.

"Yes?" She tried not to glance back at the mesmerizing flames.

"He's this way," he said, gesturing for her to move around the bonfire.

"Like it?" he said conversationally as they started moving again.

"It's beautiful."

She wasn't sure what made her say it. She wasn't even sure she shouldn't have said it…were there rules of etiquette to cover the impossible situations she was constantly finding herself in? Spontaneous exclamations of wonder didn't seem very ice-maidenly, but then…why did it even bother her what the other ice maidens would think?

"Miss Hina?" said Koyu again, and she redirected her attention to the physical world.

They'd come around to the far side of the fire, and, in front of them, Kirin and another demon were lifting an animal carcass down from a spit. The second demon was tall enough to dwarf even Kirin, and his fierce-looking, almost canine profile and bulging muscles were intimidating. Hina would have preferred not to stand next to him, but Kirin merely thanked him. The giant creature didn't reply, but bowed his head and shoulders to Kirin, revealing what looked like folded green wings sprouting out of his broad brown back.

Kirin turned back from his completed task and noticed the two of them. He smiled, which Hina found unnerving. What was he planning to do with her?

"Thank you, Koyu. Could you please help Ryuko now? I'll take care of our guest."

Koyu bowed and left, and Kirin turned to Hina. "As promised, dinner is almost ready. Come, sit with me, and we can continue our conversation from earlier. I apologize for being called away so abruptly."

He gestured her toward a clear spot on the ground a little ways from the fire.

"I trust Koyu answered some more of your questions?"

Hina nodded. "How you happened to find me, and how I ended up here." She looked up at him with slightly narrowed eyes. "But I still don't know why."

Kirin considered her, and then looked up at the stars that were just beginning to appear.

"Let me tell you a story."

Hina tilted her head in bewilderment.

"It's a story about a young, foolish boy, who thought he knew better than everyone. Unfortunately, this particular boy had enough authority for that to be disastrous."

Kirin bowed his head.

"The boy lost everything, was forced to flee his country with his only remaining family member. But he swore that one day, he would get back what he had lost. So he and his sister hid in the shadows for a long time, recruiting new people…often by rescuing the young or inexperienced ones, those who had yet to realize their potential. They would take them in, give them training, experience, something to call home. In this way, they eventually became a fighting force to be recognized."

He turned back to Hina. "That is why I brought you here: to make you the same offer I made all the others. Join us. Join our family. Learn what we have to offer. Or else, simply accept our hospitality for the night, and be on your way to wherever you wish in the morning."

He paused, and then continued.

"I don't know what your goals are, but if you so desire, there is much you could accomplish with us."

Her goals? What were her goals? She had been looking for a group of ice-women, but she had already realized the impossibility of that. Or perhaps she simply wanted to find a group of ice-wielders, and accept the fact that they would have males among them?

Or was that what she really wanted at all?

"What do you do?" she asked, pushing aside the thought for the moment.

Kirin spread his hands. "We do many things. We fight our enemies. We aid our allies. We gather the resources to one day take back what was ours."

Hina considered that.

"What would you have done if I had lacked "potential"?"

"The snake threatened the whole city. I would have stopped him in any case. But if you had not had the potential I see in you, I would not have taken you in."

Hina was silent, considering everything he had said. Kirin let her remain in silence for some time, and then spoke again.

"You need not make your decision now. As I said, you are our guest for tonight. Indeed, if you wish to delay your decision by several days, you may."

Hina closed her eyes.

"One more question." She opened her eyes again and looked directly at him.

"If I choose to join you now…could I ever leave? Or would it be an irrevocable decision?"

Kirin spread his hand and bowed his head. "If you found a better path…yes, you could leave on good terms." He raised a hand. "However, fair warning. What I have said only applies if you keep your side of the bond of hospitality. If you choose instead to betray our trust…" He looked directly at her, and his eyes seemed to burn without the help of the fire's reflection.

"If you betray us, the best you can hope for is a swift death."

Hina's shoulders relaxed infinitesimally.

This was it. This was the other shoe she had waiting to drop.

She could believe him now.

His offer was genuine: sanctuary, training, acceptance—and he had just laid out the price: loyalty. There was now only one question remaining: was that a price she was willing to pay?

Hina clenched her fist. What would the elders think?

She took a deep breath.

"I want to stay."


	9. Beginnings

Author's note: Sorry for the late upload...I just found out that my grandmother had cancer. So...yeah.

I'm still going to do my best to update on time. I get the feeling I'll need the distraction.

Sorry, enough about me. On to the story!

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: Beginnings<p>

That night contained a lot of firsts for Hina.

It was the first time she had ever tasted cooked meat…indeed, cooked food of any kind. The ice maidens did occasionally eat meat, but they served it frozen, never heated. There was no fire in her land, so they never cooked their food.

She'd carefully balanced the plant on her lap with her good hand…and then realized that she had no idea how to eat it. She'd had to ask the person next to her—a woman whose name she'd missed—what to do with it.

It was strange.

Strange, but…not bad. The flavor was completely different from anything she had ever tasted, and the entire concept of eating foods warm was alien to her, but still…it wasn't bad.

Remembering to be a polite guest, Hina offered her last _chimi_, as well as the few other items she still had, as her contribution to the feast.

Most of the camp members tried a little, with varying reactions. Kirin said it was "interesting", but perhaps not his favorite. Koyu, though…when he bit into the pungent sweetnessof the_ chimi_, his eyes went wide.

"This…this is _amazing!_" he cried. Hina agreed, but told him, with a twinge of regret, how they only grew in the iciest corners of the Makai.

It was also the first time she had ever met more than one person at once (barring, presumably, her infancy).

She was introduced to everyone in the camp that night, though it didn't take long for her to completely lose track in a blur of names and faces. She met Shizuku, the one Koyu said had bound up her ribs, who turned out to be a friendly, spirited kitsune with an affinity for water. She kept her red-brown hair tied back, which made it look like a second tail, and she couldn't seem to stop prowling, moving back and forth and making sharp gestures and twitching her ears as she spoke. Despite the woman's friendliness, Hina felt like taking a step back the entire time she was talking.

Then there was the huge winged demon who had been helping Kirin with the cooking. His name was Juhi, and he turned out to be the quietest one of the bunch…which Hina found refreshing, whatever her reservations had been at first. He had simply said his name by way of introduction, shaken her small hand carefully in his huge, clawed one, and turned back to serving the food.

And she met Ryoko, who Kirin introduced as his younger sister. She could see the resemblance at once—Ryoko had the same reddish-black hair, though hers was almost waist length, and she had similar features, though hers wore a look of untempered fierceness. With a fleeting sense of unease, Hina wondered what Kirin would look like without his carefully cultivated civility.

But even with all her fierceness, Hina didn't get the sense that it was directed at her, and Ryoko's greeting was friendly enough. Indeed, once Hina looked closer, she realized that there was a lot more going on in her eyes than she'd given her credit for.

There were other names, too, names she couldn't yet connect with a face: Imahara and Yochi and Hyoujin and Aijou and Sachi—though that last one meant "happiness", and she had a vague impression that its owner hadn't looked particularly happy. She could also remember plenty of faces and forms, surely some of which went with the names she'd caught, but she had no idea which name went with the older woman with graying purple hair and the lines of wisdom in her face, or the grim-looking man whose lowered antennae she had at first mistaken for bangs of his long black hair, or the cheerful girl with the braid almost as dark a green as the evergreens of her homeland.

Between all of the introductions and the feast and the general atmosphere of triumph, the dinner was already shaping up to be a celebration, but when Hina had agreed to stay, it had turned into a full-blown party.

It was the first time anyone had ever thrown a party for her. Birthdays were acknowledged among the Koorime, but not an excuse for a party (and parties among such reserved women were much more sedate than what was shaping up here). For the most part, the only time a party was thrown with a guest of honor was when someone had her first child.

So the beginnings of music amid congratulations took her completely off guard. Why were they reacting like this? Why weren't they suspicious of her motives? Or were they? Did they just want to keep her off guard? But…_why?_ If they meant her harm, she was still weak and would be completely at their mercy. But that left the possibility that they really just did welcome her, which went against everything she'd ever heard about the outside. But then…hadn't she already decided to disregard Koorime customs and assumptions? _Could_ she even shake off those assumptions, even if she wanted to?

While she was wondering all this, though, the music had gotten into full swing, and she realized something else was going on.

It was the first time she had ever seen people move like they were now.

"What are they doing?"

Kirin was sitting by her for the moment, after having been up and around performing various tasks and introducing her to people.

The people were moving, that much she could tell…but why? There seemed no point to their activity. First they circled one way around the fire, then, on some signal that she couldn't fathom, they turned and went the other way. Some jumped or kicked, others spun and gestured wildly. One man spun so fast that his incredibly long ponytail had nearly sliced through the flames, much to the amusement of his compatriots. The green-haired girl Hina had noticed earlier took up doing cartwheels around the circle, at least until she tumbled into one of people in it. A few members had taken partners and were moving in a similar fashion just outside the circle, though they had to keep moving to avoid being run into. Apparently everyone involved found the whole process enormously entertaining.

But for the life of her, Hina couldn't figure out what they were doing.

Kirin gave her a look of mild surprise at her question.

"They're dancing."

Hina's brow furrowed. The word rang a bell in some distant part of her memory…

"Movement for the sake of movement?" she asked.

Kirin nodded. "That would be a passable definition."

"But…why? Why do they waste their energy on such a pointless activity?"

Kirin laughed. It was an unexpected sound…was it really so odd a question?

"Is it really pointless?" answered Kirin with a question.

"Isn't it?" countered Hina.

"That depends. What is a 'point'?"

Hina remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

Kirin sighed. "There are purposes to it. The unity of movement builds camaraderie. The movement of body builds strength. The ritual of celebration may well help them accept you as one of us."

He turned more toward her.

"Yet I cannot say that any of these captures the 'point' of dancing. I don't know if I could ever explain it to someone who doesn't already know."

Hina tilted her head.

"But why would you need to explain it to someone who already knew?"

Kirin chuckled.

"Sometimes people know things without knowing that they know them."

Hina almost retorted that that was ludicrous, but sudden memory stopped her.

Herself, finally coming to the conclusion that she would never have children. Herself, suddenly realizing that not all ice-wielders were female. Herself, abruptly comprehending how foolish she was for showing a hiruseki pendant in public.

She _had_ known all these things before she realized them.

If she, herself, had done what he said, how could she call it ludicrous…even though it _was_?

Instead, she stared past the dancers, into the fire, letting its hypnotic flames pull her thoughts in various directions. The strange fractal not-patterns reminded her for a moment of the ice-plants of her home.

Her home…

All of a sudden, she was overcome with a wave of longing. She thought of Rui, and, for the first time, she wondered if her friend missed her. Rui should have been relieved not to have to pretend to enjoy her company any more…but…

Why? Why had Rui pretended to want to spend time with her? No one else had. They had always been friends, true, but who could possibly want to spend time with…an _outcast_ like her? And yet, it made _less _sense for her to pretend…would she have faced ridicule for remaining friends with her? For the first time, Hina was able to pull back from for own troubles enough to wonder.

But there was no use wondering about something she would never know the answer to.

Hina pulled herself out of the trance and realized that she was feeling much better. The hours of sleep and the large meal had restored her energy quite a bit, enough that she felt ready to tackle healing her injuries. She brought the familiar blue glow to her good hand, but then stopped and let it fade away.

"Where is Koyu?" she asked Kirin.

He raised his eyebrows. "Over there," he said, pointing. "Why?"

"I promised to teach him what I could about controlling his healing ability."

Kirin nodded slowly, not saying anything, and gestured to Koyu, who came over and joined them.

"He's all yours," said Kirin, rising. "As I'm sure you don't need me, I believe I'll join the dancers now."

With that, he slipped forward into the circle of dancers, joining the throng of shifting bodies as if he'd always belonged there.

"What was that about?" asked Koyu.

"You wanted me to teach you about healing…"

"Oh! Yes!"

His face was once again transformed into that uncomfortable fountain of eagerness and gratitude, so Hina just looked away and started talking.

"I can show you how I do it, and perhaps even explain what I'm doing. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I can do."

Koyu nodded vigorously.

Deciding that the lack of her right arm bothered her more than the stinging in her side every time she moved, Hina formed the gentle blue glow and directed it at her shoulder. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Can you feel it?" she asked Koyu.

When she focused her energy on her shoulder, she could see the bone and muscle in false-color in her mind's eye.

"…feel what?"

Hina paused and looked at him. "Focus on my energy." When Koyu leaned closer and squinted, she shook her head.

"No. Don't look at it. You need to…_feel_ at it." Even the Koorime didn't have a proper word for it, she noted, and briefly wondered why.

Koyu looked puzzled, but closed his eyes. After a moment, they shot open in surprise.

"It's…there! Your energy! Even without seeing it, I can…see it!"

It was Hina's turn to be surprised.

"You mean that you didn't know how to do even that?"

"But…isn't that…what you were trying to tell me how to do?"

Hina shook her head.

"I was…" she paused a moment to consider her words, "I wanted you to use that, but to look…closer." She touched her left hand to her right shoulder. "Try to 'see' what's happening inside."

Koyu's eyes widened. "I can _do_ that?"

"You should be able to."

Koyu was concentrating hard, but after a moment, his expression melted into one of awe.

"Whoa…"

That was all he could manage at first, but then the torrent of words broke free.

"It's…I can see all of it! Flesh and bone and…I don't even know what some of that _is!_"

All of…that? What was there that he didn't recognize? Sinew? Ligament? Did he really lack even the most basic knowledge of anatomy?

"This is so _cool! _I can even see your blood going through your veins! Only I can't really see it and…it seems almost _blue!_" He paused. "Your blood…isn't really blue, is it?" He sounded like he couldn't be sure if he was asking for confirmation or simply asking.

"No. It's red. That's the false-color effect…you'll get used to it. Although," she frowned, "I think you might be picking up on my youki, instead. It runs through channels that are closely connected the bloodstream."

Koyu nodded slowly, but didn't respond. Instead, he focused once again on her arm.

Now that he was finally doing as she wanted, Hina brought her healing power out for the third time and finally brought it to her injured shoulder. She let its soothing touch simply linger there for a moment while she focused on where to direct it.

She closed her eyes to better take in the false-color impressions. The sound blast had caused microfractures in the upper part of her humerus, so she passed her energy over them, sealing them back up. The rest of the damage was subtler, and therefore trickier to handle, but not completely beyond her. She wrapped her hand around her shoulder seeking out the pressure points she's been taught and flooding her arm with energy.

After a few minutes of this, she tapered off the flow and opened her eyes, only to find Koyu staring back at her.

"I got what you did with the bones," he said, "but the other part—I've never seen anything like it before in my life!"

That was to be expected, given the level of knowledge he'd displayed. Still, Hina had to wonder how he could be so ignorant of things that should be so basic for an ice demon. Or were they only considered basic among the ice _maidens?_ Perhaps healing was considered irrelevant to more combat-focused outside demons? But it should be even more useful to them…and he hadn't even known how to sense energy.

Hina flexed her shoulder. Better. It wasn't completely healed, but she'd come to the limits of what she could do, and she could easily let time do the rest.

"My ribs should be easier…you said you could do bones, yes?"

Koyu colored. "I…uh…I said I saw what you did…but I'm not sure if I could do it too."

Hina nodded. "I think I can help you. Put your hand here," she said, indicating her side, just under her left breast.

Koyu went even redder.

"B-but…" he trailed off.

Hina furrowed her brow. Did he not want to touch her? Granted, she had had a similar reaction at first, but there was no way he had been raised in an all male environment, so why would _he_ react like that?

Still, after a moment, he nodded sharply. "I said I wanted you to teach me," he said, but it seemed directed more at himself than at her.

"Here," said Hina, indicating the spot again. He flushed even deeper, but complied.

She showed him again how she had healed the bone on the first broken rib, and then had him join his power to hers on the second one. On the last one, she removed her hand and let him try it on his own.

He was so nervous that he accidentally jiggled the edges further apart, causing Hina to grimace.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I said I'd just make it worse! I knew I shouldn't—"

Hina took her hand and put it back on his before he could draw away.

"It's fine," she said, through only slightly gritted teeth. "Try again."

On the second try, he healed it without causing any more damage, and Hina nodded her approval.

"I told you ice demons could do it," she said.

Honestly, he probably could have figured it out without her—though whether he would have had the courage to try was anyone's guess.

Still, these people had saved her life, and she thrown her lot in with them. The very least she could do was make herself useful, and show them that, even though she hadn't met them on the best of terms, she wasn't useless.

She _would_ prove herself worthwhile, no matter what the ice maidens thought.


	10. Ignorance

Author's note: Well, I'm taking a shift staying overnight at the hospital with my grandmother. There's not a lot to do most of the time, so...you get an extra update! And possibly another one-shot later, if I can get it edited to my satisfation.

(Here's hoping for minimal sleep-deprivation-induced mistakes. Tell me if you catch any!)

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: Ignorance<p>

Hina spent the next few days trying to adjust to life in camp.

It was a lonely few days. As much as the others had welcomed her that first night, the next day had everyone drifting back to familiar patterns—patterns that didn't include her. Kirin was a good host, and made sure she was settling in, but as the leader, he had many other things to see to. Koyu gave her more time, always asking questions about ice demons, but he was also often busy.

In fact, it was Shizuku, the energetic fox, who spent the most time with her over those first few awkward days. She volunteered to help Hina get settled in, and before she knew it, Hina was pulled off in a veritable whirlwind of activity.

The kitsune showed her all over camp, telling her who or what each tent was for, and gathering up her few possessions and moving her to a spot in a new tent—the one she had been in before was acting as the infirmary—and all the while, telling her more about the way the group worked.

"Right now, we're at Mashou City for the annual market. We usually do well here—we can get things people want and can't get themselves. There's a big call for things you can only get across the border in Raizen's territory, for instance…not a lot of people are willing to risk crossing a border illegally."

"So…you're smugglers?"

Shizuku shrugged. "Sometimes. Other times it's things that are over dangerous wild ground, or sometimes just further away than people want to go. Speaking of wanting to go, that's the last of the camp…now we have to see the city!"

"So," said Hina as she was dragged off toward the gates, "you're traders?"

The fox shrugged again, which was quite a feat considering how she was nearly dragging Hina.

"Sometimes. That's how we get most of our resources, when we aren't stealing them."

Hina furrowed her brow, but before she could ask, Shizuku was off again.

"But Kirin had such strict standards about who we can steal from," she sighed, "which basically boils down to people who've directly attacked us, or allies of Yomi."

"Of who?" asked Hina, managing to slip the question in before the onslaught of words could continue.

That was enough to draw Shizuku up short.

"Wait, what?"

"Who is Yomi?"

Shizuku stared at her.

"Who is…you don't…you don't know who Yomi is?"

Hina shook her head, and Shizuku stared at her like she'd just grown a third eye.

Finally, the fox found her voice.

"He's one of the most powerful demons in the world. He controls approximately a third of the populated world."

Hina grimaced at her display of ignorance. "Ah. My political history is a little…out of date."

"A _little_?"

"Quite a bit of it is close to a thousand years old."

Shizuku looked like she couldn't decide whether to nod in comprehension or just drop her jaw further in shock. Her ears were pointing out to the sides and twitching at the contradiction.

Finally, she shook her head.

"That…would explain it. His rise to power started about that time." The she laughed. "Now I'm wondering where in the world you came from," she said conversationally, starting to walk back towards the city.

There was obviously an invitation there, but Hina chose to ignore it.

"What is Kirin's grudge against Yomi?"

"Didn't he tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Shizuku slowed down a little as they reached the gates. "Well, Yomi's the one who took over his kingdom. He's been angling for revenge ever since, so I guess he figures that the friend of our enemy is fair game to steal from."

Hina, for her part, was still wondering why none of the (admittedly few) travelers in the last thousand years had mentioned this Yomi…or if they _had_ and she'd simply missed it.

"Come on, we're wasting daylight!" And once again Hina was being dragged off by the vixen, who apparently didn't believe in taking time for contemplation.

Shizuku showed her all around the market, and then what was left of the city, at what felt like breakneck speed. They stopped at one point to get Hina her own bedroll, and which Hina insisted on buying with her own money, and at another place where Shizuku insisted on buying her an outfit with pants.

"I don't know how you manage to get around in kimonos all the time—trust me, you'll be glad to have a more practical outfit for training!"

Still, when they finally got back to camp, Shizuku regretfully informed her that she had other tasks to complete, and Hina spent the rest of that day more or less alone.

Alone in the sense of not having any companions—not alone in the sense of being unwatched. Everyone in the camp was keeping at least half an eye on her. Oddly enough, rather than finding this cloying, Hina found it rather reassuring. These people weren't idiots, to let a complete stranger wander among them. They were watching her—watching, and testing. She was sure of it.

The next few days mostly followed the pattern of that first afternoon, broken occasionally by more visits and guided tours.

However, early on the morning of the fourth day, her boredom was abruptly alleviated when Kirin came to get her.

"I hope you've been keeping busy," he said. "I apologize for leaving you on your own for so long. Normally I wouldn't, but the annual market is one of our busiest times. However, now that it's wrapping up, I'd like to take the time to see what you can do."

With that, he led her a ways out past the camp.

"Have you ever had any training in combat?"

"No."

Kirin nodded to himself.

"Very well. We can start with the basics. But first, I'd like to know about the limits of your abilities. What can you do? Can I see a demonstration?"

"I can make basic shapes easily—a block, or a wedge, even a bridge." She paused at the memory, but shook it off and continued. "With more concentration, I can make more detailed sculptures on a smaller scale. I can get a lot of force going to cause damage. I also made sharp shards to attack and a kind of shield to defend against the three who attacked me, but that was the first time I had actually done either."

She hesitated, and then added, "I can also use it to cultivate ice-plants and communicate long distance, but I doubt I will have any use for either out here."

Kirin raised his eyebrows. "Communication?"

Hina dismissed the possibility with her hand. "If I find someone else trained in the color-code."

Kirin nodded, filing her words away.

"All right." He took an unfamiliar pose. "Now, if I were going to attack you, what would you do?"

Immediately, Hina crossed her hands in front of her, releasing her abilities with a flash of blue. A wall of ice grew in front of her, and she crouched so that it would shield her faster.

Kirin nodded. "Not bad."

Without warning, he raised his hand and shot a jet of red-orange flame toward her ice wall. Hina raised her hands again, reinforcing the wall. She had to keep stepping back as she did so to make room, but she couldn't quite keep up with the rate at which it was melting. Abruptly, the flames cut off, and they both looked at the scene. The wall was much thinner than it had been, and quite a bit further back. The ground in front of the wall was a soggy mess of mud and puddles.

"Well." said Kirin. "I believe we may need to find someone else for you to train your abilities with. I shall give it some thought."

"What about Koyu?" asked Hina. After, didn't it make sense for her to train with the only other ice demon here?

Kirin shook his head. "You could certainly train together, but there would be little he could teach you. He is young yet." He stepped aside, working his way around the marshy area. "However, youki abilities aren't everything. Unpowered combat is the base on which to build everything else, and I still need to see where you stand on that."

He gestured her over to a drier section of ground. "So. Simple sparring practice?"

Hina raised her hands, palm up. "I know nothing of martial arts."

Kirin raised his eyebrows. "Unusual, for someone to survive so long without fighting ability."

Hina remained silent, still not wishing to discuss her origins. She was trying to escape that life, not relive it.

Thankfully, Kirin didn't push it. He merely crossed to her side and showed her a basic defensive pose to start from, left arm guarding her front, right free to attack, thumb curled outside her fist.

"Now," he said, crossing back to his side and taking up the same pose, "hit me."

Hina hesitated.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I've had worse. Even if I don't block you and you manage to hurt me, Koyu can fix me up."

Hina nodded, and struck. He blocked the first couple of hits with the side of his arm, so Hina used her left hand to try to get a punch in under his defenses. This one he caught in his right hand.

For a moment, all Hina could think was how _hot_ he was. She imagined liquid fire running through his veins in place of blood.

Then Kirin chuckled. "Not bad…you're thinking about strategy. However, now I have you pinned…it's not a good idea to become tied to your opponent like this unless you're physically stronger."

He let go of her and resumed his original stance.

"Shall we try again?"

* * *

><p>They spent several hours like this, working first on Hina's attack, then switching to defense, and finally throwing in some extra footwork. Hina could tell that Kirin was pulling his punches—even the ones that got through barely even stung.<p>

By this time, Hina was exhausted. She was completely unused to this level of physical exertion—life among the Koorime moved at a much slower pace. She lifted her shaking arm to wipe the sweat from her brow, noting with some frustration that Kirin hadn't even broken a sweat.

Kirin stood down from his defensive position.

"I believe that will be enough for today." He paused, brow furrowing. "Do you think you will be up for practicing your abilities later today?"

Hina nodded, not bothering to speak. She still had plenty of youki left, even after the ice shield—it was physical exhaustion that was getting to her, not spiritual. As long as she didn't have to dodge around, she'd be able to manage after a break.

Kirin raised his eyebrows, but nodded and turned to walk back to camp.

* * *

><p>True to his word, Kirin had someone to train with her later that afternoon.<p>

"Hyoujin," he said, when she asked who it would be. "He's our resident earth manipulator."

Hina wracked her brain for an image of someone who might be said earth demon, but the only possibility she came up with was huge, brown Juhi—and while she didn't know his element, she _did_ know his name.

"Why earth?" she asked instead.

"His fighting style has the most in common with what I've seen of your strengths."

Hina wondered at that—the earth demon she'd fought in the city hadn't really done much she'd be able to imitate—unless she coated the ground in ice and rippled it to trip her opponents, and she didn't have nearly enough raw strength for that.

She didn't have time to wonder further, however, because one of the other camp members was approaching them.

He wasn't that much taller than her, but he was lean and tanned. When he turned, she saw that his hair was kept in a narrow brown ponytail that came down past his knees. He walked with a bit of a spring in his step, and his light clothes ruffled in the wind.

"This is Hyoujin," said Kirin, "you may remember him from the other night."

Hina didn't think she did, until…a vision of the dancers leapt to the forefront of her memory, and she remembered he had been one of the most energetic of them all. This was an earth user? If she'd had to guess, she would have pegged him as wind, or perhaps the wilder sort of water wielder.

"Pardon me," said Hina, bowing her head slightly. "I had forgotten."

"Quite all right," said Hyoujin amiably, stretching out his hand. "There are rather a lot of us."

She shook his hand, though she still wasn't entirely comfortable with the process. She had preferred it when those she was introduced to bowed instead, since that was the ice maiden convention.

"I shall endeavor to remember this time."

Hyoujin chuckled. Instead of responding, he merely motioned away from the camp.

"You ready for this?"


	11. Learning

Author's note: Still on night watch, 'nother extra chapter.

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: Learning<p>

Kirin had been right—Hyoujin's fighting style was compatible with her innate talents.

She had expected his to be like the earth demon she'd fought in the city—_Yurasu_, she remembered, hearing his snake demon companion's words hissing in her ear again.

Hyoujin, however, was completely different. In fact, her first impression of him as an air demon wasn't entirely unfounded. He couldn't control the wind, but he _moved_ like it. He was acrobatic, twisting and jumping and turning in midair. Hina kept expecting him to drop the charade and take off and fly.

He didn't use the earthquake and ground-raising techniques that had nearly killed her. Rather, he formed his element into weapons, shields, and tools—rather like she could.

"I usually go for knives, or a sword, and something else close-range. You might prefer something long range—arrows, maybe?—but still, let's start by seeing you make a knife."

Hina silently raised her hand, palm up, and concentrated on forming a reasonably-sized chunk of ice in her hand. It wasn't hard, so she was a little surprised when Hyoujin made a sound of appreciation.

"Must be nice to be able to form your element from nothing."

"You mean you can't?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Though my element's almost always all around, so I don't have much to complain about. Not like Shizuku—she has to have water."

He saw her looking at him and waved her on. "Sorry, don't let me distract you."

Hina returned her attention to her ice. Forming the basic shape of a knife wasn't hard, but forming the bladed edge was surprisingly difficult. The sharp points she'd used before were just that: points. Trying to stretch the sharpness of a point out into an extra dimension was far more difficult than she would have expected.

They worked on blades for a while, and she showed him the shield she'd used. He gave her some pointers on how to make it more efficient, and she was able to show him some of the things she'd learned about making a hard medium spiral out into curves that were deceptively gentle-looking. For whatever reason, curves were much easier for her to form than hard lines.

They also worked on building walls and barriers, which was a different kind of challenge. They didn't require any special skill to produce, but maintaining and expanding them was draining.

After training for most of the afternoon, Hina felt her energy drained at least as low as her physical strength had been earlier. She tried to form another ice knife, but before she could even get the basic shape down, it shattered in her hands.

She doubled over, resting her hands on her knees. It was all she could do not to fall over then and there.

"Are you all right?" asked Hyoujin.

She didn't answer. How could she?

"I had no idea you were so tired," he said, sympathetically.

Hina discovered that she didn't much like that tone of voice directed at her.

Why was she so weak? Among the ice maidens, she had had been one of the strongest, not that anyone had tested herself against her, and she had certainly been the most independent. Now she felt like she couldn't do anything up to the standards of her new…what were they, exactly? For that matter, what had the ice maidens been to her?

"Do you need help getting back to camp?"

"No," said Hina, more shortly than she'd intended. She straightened up, doing her best to hide her exhaustion.

If nothing else, she could at least _walk back to camp_ unassisted.

* * *

><p>She did make back to camp, but only just.<p>

She made it to the outer circle of the campfire before abruptly deciding enough was enough and abruptly sitting down. It wasn't falling, because she was in control of her decent. The fact that she was still kind of in the middle of nowhere had nothing to do with it.

"You sure you're all right?" said Hyoujin.

"I'll be fine."

"Good." He collapsed on the ground next to her, ponytail flung out behind him as he lay. "That was the most exhausting training session I've had in forever. You're good."

Despite her exhaustion, Hina gave him a shocked look.

"I…what?"

It was Hyoujin's turn to be surprised. "Yeah. When Kirin said you were untrained, I thought he meant you didn't know how to use your abilities. I didn't realize he only meant you were an untrained _fighter_." He lifted himself up on his arms to stretch. "You've got way more energy than I did when I came here."

Hina turned back to the fire in front of her, contemplating it solemnly and wondering when this place, this group, would stop upsetting her expectations.

Hina closed her eyes.

"Thank you."

Hyoujin grinned without opening his eyes. "Any time."

Fortunately for the both of them, others had been on dinner duty. Shizuku came by with bowls full of a thick, savory stew for them.

"How'd training go?" she asked.

"Izammmph," was Hyoujin's eloquent response though a mouthful of stew.

"Well, I believe," said Hina, more helpfully, before tasting from her own bowl. Hungry as she was, she still wasn't used to the outside food—especially the heat. Whatever this was wasn't bad, though, so she ate with more enthusiasm.

Shizuku laughed at their responses and sat down next to Hina with her own bowl.

"And _you_," she said, poking Hina on the arm (a motion which rather shocked Hina—was that _normal_ out here?), "_you_ didn't wear your training outfit."

Hina looked down. It was true, she'd just worn one of the kimonos she'd brought with her.

"I had forgotten," she answered truthfully.

"You should try next time—I promise you won't be sorry." She made another of those unnecessary motions she favored, reaching out and grasping one clawed hand around empty air just as said "sorry".

A loud snore made them look to the right. Hyoujin's arms were tucked comfortably behind his head, and he was sound asleep with his bowl perched on his stomach.

"Wow, you really wore him out!" commented Shizuku, before turning back to Hina.

"You'll want to get plenty of sleep tonight—we leave in the morning."

Hina was surprised. Kirin _had_ said the market was wrapping up, but…

"Where are we going?"

Shizuku shrugged. "Kirin's probably deciding that now. Most likely, we'll head to one of our bases before deciding further."

The fox's apparent lack of interest was not lost on Hina.

"You don't care?"

Shizuku cocked her head to one side, ears bent in confusion. "Why should I?"

"Because…" Hina searched for an answer. "…you're part of the group?" she finished at last.

Shizuku clawed the air again. "Exactly!"

Hina blinked.

Shizuku cocked her head to the other side.

"It's…" started the fox, before pausing. "It's just that…why should I care? It doesn't matter where we go, because wherever we go, I'll be there."

Hina furrowed her brow, trying to understand.

"It doesn't matter. These people—you—us—they're my _pack_. I'll run with them to the ends of the earth, come what may. A little thing like _destination_ isn't going to make a difference to me."

Hina was silent, taking in the fox's words. Her pack? She'd been thinking of this group as a collection of allies more than anything else, people drawn together by common need. But this…this was something more.

Kirin's voice echoed in her head.

_Join us. Join our family_.

She'd assumed it was hyperbole, phrased to convince her to join them.

Was that really what she had found here? If she could prove herself to these people—she had no doubt she was still in a probationary stage—would she really gain something she could hardly even remember having?

Rui's face flashed across her mind, and Hina shrank back in guilt. No. If she could learn to think of these people as family, then how much more had Rui been? They had been raised as sisters!

She closed her eyes in sorrow. Had she really…had she abandoned her best friend, her _only_ friend, without even saying goodbye?

Had she been selfish? Had leaving really been her only choice?

She bowed her head, remembering how she'd been treated. Yes. Leaving _had_ been her only choice, but still…she should have known better. She should have…

What?

What would she have done differently even if she had thought of Rui as family? Invited her to come along? She never would have come. She had a life there, a family of her own. Rui would never have abandoned her daughter to join the uncertain fate of a friend.

All of which left her exactly where she'd started.

She had a chance here. She had to prove herself to these people, or else…

"Hey, don't fall asleep in your soup!"

Hina blinked her eyes open.

"Come on, you're exhausted. Let's get you back to your tent."

Without asking, Shizuku lifted Hina up and half draped her over her shoulder. "Come on, right over here!" She glanced back over her shoulder and sighed. "I'll come back for that one," she said gesturing and the figure on the ground with one of her pointed ears. "Seriously, how'd you two manage to wear each other out so much?"

Hina assumed it was a rhetorical question—and besides, she was too tired to answer, or even protest being dragged around like a sack of fruit.

She hardly even noticed being dumped onto her bedroll, or having a blanket tossed over her. She was much too busy slipping into a dream where Rui jumped down from Koorime—which was only a few feet off the ground—and came to join her, and the fire danced as the dancers moved and surrounded them and took them in.


	12. Leaving

Author's note: Thank you to reviewer Nani san for your kind words about my grandmother. Sadly…well, she was in the hospital with terminal lung cancer, and she passed away not long after. That's why I haven't been writing anything other than pure angst recently. However, your review has restored my motivation to write for this story. Thank you.

(As a side note, I wrote this before that happened. You can expect this story to take a turn for the angst as well.)

* * *

><p>Chapter 12: Leaving<p>

By the time Hina woke up the next morning, the camp looked completely different.

More than half of the tents were already down when she stepped, blinking, from the flap of her own. A winged purple demon and a thin, shadowy man were loading two carts with brightly colored bundles of cloth—presumably the tents—as well as other pieces of luggage. Someone she didn't know was packing indistinct objects into a box. Shizuku and Hyoujin were folding up another tent off to her right, while Juhi's huge form was kneeling by one of the flattened areas, palms on the ground. As she watched, the bent and broken grass straightened itself up like a wave of green away from his claws.

"Finally up, sleepyhead?"

Hina turned to see Shizuku practically skipping towards her, followed at a slightly more sedate pace by her earth demon companion.

"I'm sor—" began Hina, but before she could even get the word out, the fox was waving her off.

"Nonsense. You needed the rest. Besides," she said, jabbing Hyoujin in the side with her elbow, "you weren't the only one to sleep in."

Hina would have Hyoujin to be offended, or at least annoyed, at being mock-attacked like that, but he just grinned rather apologetically and shrugged.

"But you need to pack! You'll need to get your bedroll and clothes and whatever you brought with you…and I guess that's all you have, huh? Nothing that would need to go on a cart, anyway."

Shizuku kept on talking about all the things that needed doing, while Hina just nodded and felt overwhelmed. Fortunately, she was saved by Hyoujin taking over and dragging the fox back the way they'd come, saying "We've really got to finish over here—just throw your things in your bag!"

That she could do. Actually, all she had to do was roll up her bedroll and tie it on—everything else she owned in this world was already in her small pack.

So she was ready in plenty of time to help with the rest of the cleanup. With everyone helping out and Juhi raising the crushed grass, the campsite soon looked absolutely untouched.

When everyone was finally ready, they set off away from the morning sun.

* * *

><p>Thus began Hina's first journey with Kirin's band. (It was no longer a <em>camp<em>, after all, and Hina had to try to adjust her mental vocabulary accordingly.)

The trip took most of a week, with everyone walking and the largest, strongest members of the band taking turns pulling the two carts.

It was a pleasant enough trip, with plenty of time for conversation as they walked.

At one point, while she was walking by Kirin in a companionable silence, she thought to ask what this group called itself.

He had laughed at that. "We never did manage to come up with a name for ourselves. We talked about it for a long time—the phoenix was the most popular theme, by the end— but no one managed to come up with something everyone liked. Eventually it kind of fell by the wayside…we never really found the need to call ourselves anything but 'us'."

Hina remained silent for some time after that, pondering again the strange closeness she was still on the outskirts of.

* * *

><p>Their travel was mostly uneventful for three days, but on the morning of the fourth, Hina finally had a chance to see the team in action.<p>

The morning had started the same as the others, except that they left the open plains behind them and instead entered a more wooded area. These were the first trees Hina had ever seen that weren't extremely cold-tolerant evergreens, so that alone would have been enough to make the day memorable.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only memorable thing to happen that day.

One of the members of the group—Imahara, who turned out to be the dark-haired loner with the antenna-bangs—had been in the lead for some time when he held up a hand for them to stop.

"What is it?" asked Kirin, stepping forward, one hand moving toward the hilt of his sword.

"Company," said Imahara, darkly. That in itself wasn't too worrying—'dark' seemed to be his default tone.

"How many?"

Imahara was silent for a moment, then answered, "Over a dozen. They've just noticed us…and they're acting territorial."

Kirin considered. "Can we go around them?"

Imahara just shook his head.

"Hm. Keep going, then. If they're smart they'll let us through. If not…" he shrugged, which simultaneously expressed his feeling on the matter, and also shifted his travelling cape out of the way, providing better access to the blade strapped around his waist.

Hina was straining her senses to the limit, but she still couldn't feel whatever it was that Imahara had noticed. Either he had a much wider range than she did, or else they were masking their signatures in a way she couldn't break through.

Still, it wasn't that long before the self-proclaimed rulers of the forest decided to make an appearance.

They were, appropriately enough, led by a troll.

"Hmm…visitors!" he boomed. "We should welcome them…assuming the can pay the rent."

Kirin's face twisted in disgust as he looked at him, but he smoothed it out with an effort.

"We're not in the market for your…_hospitality_," he said, voice carefully neutral. "We're just passing through."

"Oh, but you're already here, aren't you? So you already owe us for your _accommodations_." He sounded proud to be able to use such a long word, despite the fact that it wasn't strictly accurate, as they hadn't set camp in the forest.

"I have an alternate arrangement to propose," said Kirin, his clipped voice barely disguising his impatience. "Let us pass, and we won't kill you."

The troll threw back his head and laughed— a harsh, cruel sound.

One of his subordinates (mostly humanoid, but with a horn and impossibly long ears) tapped on his arm, trying to get his attention. The troll tried the brush off the smaller being, but he was insistent, and reached up to whisper something in his superior's ear.

The troll leader's change in mood was instant, and violent. He roared, and punched his follower in the chest, throwing the unfortunate bearer of bad news flying painfully into a nearby tree.

"Does anyone else want to suggest surrender?" he roared at the rest of his men.

A few flicker their eyes back and forth between their leader and their (potential) enemies, sizing them up, but most didn't even spare a glance for their injured colleague before roaring their approval back at their leader.

Said leader, flush with the power he held over his men, turned back to his challengers and crossed his arms.

"So, which will it be?"

Kirin shook his head regretfully.

"You should have listened to that one."

"And just why would I want to do that?" Arrogance was fast turning to fury.

Kirin raised an eyebrow. "He appears to be more perceptive than you are. We have no quarrel with him." He spared a glance over his shoulder, which Hina didn't understand, but apparently the others did, judging by their curt nods.

The troll roared again at the insult, but Kirin raised a hand and continued. "We are vastly more powerful than your little gang. Just let us go, and you can keep your forest—and your life."

The troll elected to abandon his extensive vocabulary in favor of the more direct approach. He swung his weapon—a giant spiked club—directly at Kirin's face.

Everything happened at once after that.

Kirin blurred with speed as he avoided the blow, while several different attacks found their way to the troll leader. Most of the troll's subordinates, other than the one he'd knocked out earlier, leapt in to defend their leader, and the fight was on.

Hina mostly found herself trying to avoid getting hit by stray attacks. Just trying to keep track of what was going on left her no attention to spare for launching a counterattack. Everyone else seemed content to focus on what was immediately in front of them, and not bother trying to take in the bigger picture.

That was probably the wiser choice for a combat situation.

Still, it proved fortunate for them that Hina was the big-picture type.

Hina dodged a rippling black attack that was aimed at an enemy, and tried to see where everyone was. Shizuku was using her clawed hands and sharp teeth to full effect, not even bothering to go for a weapon, if she even had one. Ryoko was dancing around like the fire she controlled, both hands wreathed in flame. Juhi, on the other hand, wasn't moving a muscle—but the trees around his motionless figure were more than making up for it, whipping around like they were caught in a hurricane. Imahara had leapt back into the branch of one of the trees that wasn't currently being used as a weapon, away from the center of the fray, and was shooting bolts of energy with sniperlike precision. Not far from there, Koyu was enveloped in a cloud of what looked like snow as several enemies closed in on him.

Koyu…

With a jolt, Hina realized that he was outnumbered and cut off. She didn't know much about his abilities, but whatever he was doing didn't seem to be doing much to stop them.

She ducked under another attack, this one definitely meant for her, and launched herself toward to younger ice demon.

He was directing furious blasts of crystallized winter at his opponents, but they kept coming at him, hardly slowed down at all…though even that was more than Hina would have expected from the snowy blasts.

Hina formed an ice blade like she'd practiced, and flung it at the closest of Koyu's attackers. It missed his vital points, but he fell back with a cry. That left only two, one of which whirled around at his compatriot's cry. With a snarl, this new opponent launched himself at Hina, but she twisted aside and left him a nice patch of ice to slip on. She didn't spare a glance for his fate—though her ears told her he'd slammed face first into a tree—because the final demon (a wildcat, by the look of him) was circling in on the nearly defenseless snow demon.

Hina had only an instant to glimpse Koyu's wide, terrified eyes before his attacker leapt.

Hina's body moved before her mind could process anything. She threw herself forward, calling up her ice as she went.

The cat demon's teeth sank into her shoulder.

The partially formed ice shield had protected her from the full force of his attack, but it hadn't been enough to guard her completely.

She coated her hand in the hardest ice she could muster and punched her attacker in the jaw, causing him to release her with a cry.

Koyu came up behind her, miniature blizzard at hand, and surrounded the injured feline with swirling snow. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the cat stumbled, almost drunkenly, and collapsed to his knees, his energy swirling out of him in a way that Hina abruptly realized was not under his control.

Koyu turned to Hina, breathing hard and pale.

"Thank you," he said, faintly. "There were too many…I…I couldn't get all of them…"

Hina spared a glance at the rest of the battle—and realized that there wasn't one. Everyone else seemed to have finished up their respective fights as well. The troll leader was dead, and many of his gang members appeared to have surrendered.

Satisfied that they wouldn't be unexpectedly attacked, she turned back to Koyu.

"Of course." She nodded at him. "I couldn't very well let that one get you."

"You're bleeding."

Hina glanced down. The ice she'd been trying to form had closed off her wounds, but she could still see the gashes under the clear shield. She couldn't feel them yet—adrenaline was doing its job—but she knew that would change soon.

Before she could answer, though, Shizuku noticed them and bounced over.

"What are you doing all the way over here?" she asked as soon as she was close enough. "You're _way_ out of the way!" Her chipper attitude clashed rather alarmingly with her bloodstained hands and teeth.

But before Hina could respond to _that,_ Koyu had launched into a description of what had just happened—one that made her out to be far more heroic than she remembered being. But when she tried to set the record straight, both of them dismissed her objections as excessive modesty.

_Instinct,_ she mentally corrected when Koyu called her brave. _Instinct, not courage. I couldn't let the young one be killed._

The group gathered back together and got ready to set off again, cleaning up and taking care of various minor injuries—including those of the one demon who hadn't wanted to fight them—and as they did, Hina realized that she wasn't the only one who was having stories told about her. Hyoujin was busy telling everyone about how he'd nearly been overpowered by a well-shielded demon, when all of a sudden, Aijou had come out of nowhere and knocked down his attacker. Aijou—who turned out to be the girl with the green braid—protested that she'd actually lost her footing and fallen onto his attacker quite by accident. A blond man with a small pair of horns (whose name she couldn't remember) gave Imahara credit for saving him from his own attacker, even though the quieter man maintained that he'd been aiming for someone else altogether.

Slowly, Hina realized that this was just something these people _did_—another of those solidarity-building affairs, much like Kirin had said about the dance.

Only this time, she was inside it.


	13. Arrival

Author's note: Dang, I've fallen behind. This chapter was a bit rushed (as I've completely run out of buffer), so I hope it's up to par. Anyway, it's a bit on the short side, but Hina does learn a few new things that I hope you will find interesting as well.

* * *

><p>Chapter 13: Arrival<p>

The forest they were travelling through became steadily darker and denser, but they ran into no further trouble on their way.

Kirin had offered the renegade gang member a place in the group, but after some deliberation, he had elected to strike off on his own.

Hina managed to glean a few more bits of information from various conversations along the way, to the effect that they were on their way to one of the group's larger bases, one they hadn't been to in a while, and that the bandits they'd defeated yesterday had been newcomers who simply chosen a bad place to make their stand, and that the group's usual pattern was to set up a more or less permanent base from which to send out smaller parties on different missions.

"You were lucky," said Aijou, the green-haired girl whom she had asked about it. "That's one of the few things that everyone goes to—we might not have found you otherwise."

She was a young one, though not quite as young as Koyu, and had a kind of cautious cheerfulness about her. Hina had wondered what her story was, and asked her how she had come to join the group.

The girl was quiet for a moment.

"That's…not something you'll want to directly ask anyone here," she said softly. "For a lot of us, it's a new start, so asking about that is kind of…frowned on. A lot of people only share the details of their stories with people they're really close to. I think Shizuku is the only one who knows Hyoujin's story…though she's not really shy about her own."

Hina had apologized for her unknowing breach of courtesy, and settled into a contemplative silence.

So that was why Kirin hadn't insisted on knowing her origins, why Shizuku had let her curiosity be known in a way that let her politely ignore it. She wondered, though, about the girl's comment about Shizuku and Hyoujin…they were really that close of friends? Aijou had made story-sharing seem like a really big deal.

She went over in her mind what she'd seen of their interactions, and then over what she knew of the sociology of this world. As she did, she came up with a rather disturbing option.

Were they, perhaps, a mated pair?

She knew people did that here, but still…a shudder ran down her spine as she thought through the implications of that.

No, best to simply go with the "very close friends" theory, and not think too hard about it. It definitely wasn't any of her business, whatever they were.

When they finally reached their destination, Hina almost didn't realize it at first.

They had come to the base of a hill that jutted sharply up out of the dense forest like a sentinel, but there wasn't really any clear place for them to be—not even an open space for the tents. The base of the hill itself—cliff, really—was overgrown with vines and gnarled trees, and it looked like it had been abandoned since the beginning of time.

Then Juhi stepped forward and placed his huge hands gently on the largest, most gnarled tree of them all.

As Hina watched, the tree seemed to shiver, and then it began to shrink, seeming to grow backwards through time until it was a sapling again.

In the newly exposed rock, a doorway yawned open.

Kirin saw her staring, and smiled at her. "One of the many benefits of having a plant-user on your side."

* * *

><p>The base was much larger than she had expected. There were rooms carved into the rock, some even with well-hidden windows, and perfect steps and doorways carved into the stone. Hina could only assume that the rock had been shaped by an earth-user.<p>

When she had a chance, she asked Hyoujin about it.

"Yeah, it was definitely an earth demon, but it was way before my time. Besides, I couldn't have done it. I'm too…conflicted…for that kind of power." He shook his head, and then offered, "Wanna see the rest of the place? I can give you the grand tour!"

He showed her the meeting rooms and sleeping quarters, the dining hall and the storage areas, and winding stairs that led to the lookout post in the top of the hill.

And— glory of glories—an indoor bath.

An underground river had been channeled through carved pools in the rock, with stairs leading down into the water.

"It's a little on the cool side—though you might not mind," he said, remembering her element. "Uh…the door locks like this," he said, showing her how to twist the knob.

The doors in this place were works of art. The rock-shaper must have worked together with a wood-shaper to make them—wood and stone wove seamlessly around each other to form the hinges, and each door had a different geometrical design etched on it, each more elaborate than the last.

Later on, Hina happened to meet Juhi coming out of the dining hall (he often acted as camp cook, and well as providing them with firewood when none was at hand), and asked him about them.

"Yes," he rumbled, "I made those. I make them still…every time we come here, I change them again." He demonstrated on the door to the dining hall, placing his great clawed hands against them and concentrating.

Hina watched in amazement as the lines in the wood shifted; some moving slightly, new ones being formed, others smoothing out into nothingness. The pattern grew infinitesimally more intricate, and then Juhi lifted his hand.

"It's beautiful," said Hina.

He bowed his head in acknowledgement.

"Has it taken you long?"

Juhi spread his hands, palm up.

"We have been coming here every few years for close to a hundred years. If that is long, then yes."

Hina nodded, and was silent for a moment.

"Do you ever work with turn symmetry?"

Juhi looked at her, not understanding, so she elaborated.

"All of your designs…they fold in on themselves. They are the same on either side of a straight line. Do you have any designs that stay the same around a single point, turning on a circle?"

Juhi's great ridged brows furrowed, trying to picture what she was saying.

"Like this."

Hina help up her hand and concentrated, calling up the image of a _chimi_ plant.

In her palm, a miniature version of her favorite fruit appeared, carved in her ice, and then she made its spiraling, fractal leaves sprout up, curving protectively around it.

Juhi's eyes widened.

"This…is also beautiful. What is it?"

"A plant from my homeland." Hina had to swallow a pang of nostalgia. "It has a different kind of pattern."

Juhi considered it long and hard, resting his canine jaw on one palm.

"Yes…" he rumbled. "I see."

"You may have it, if you wish. It will last a while yet."

Juhi bowed his head. "Thank you."

Just then, Shizuku came around the corner.

"Oh, Hina!" she called. "There you are! Come on, let me show you your new room!"

* * *

><p>Life in the cave was another set of major adjustments for Hina.<p>

The colors had changed on her again—from the icy blues of her homeland, to the yellowish greens of the prairie, and now the hard greys of stone surrounded by the dark greens and browns of the forest.

The routines were completely different, too—much more down time, with chores mostly consisting of hunting parties (which she hadn't been on yet), and gathering food and firewood from the surrounding forest.

However, Hina didn't have long to settle in to the new location.

Only a few days later, Shizuku came to get her.

"Hina! Mission time!" She was practically bouncing with excitement.

"When?"

"We leave tomorrow, but Kirin wants us to come hear what it's about right now."

So Hina found herself in one of the rooms (for lack of a better term) near the entrance of the cave. The rest of the members of this smaller mission were already there: Kirin, Hyoujin, and three she hadn't gotten to know yet: a shadowy man with pure black skin with stark white markings; a tall, thin man whose dark hair was kept in a topknot; and a shorter, stockier man whose defining characteristic was his blank-looking white eyes.

When Kirin saw them arrive, he nodded and wasted no time in getting to the point.

"We've discovered a good haul just across the border, so we're going to take a small group and go for it."

"Buy or steal?" asked Hyoujin.

"Buy. The problem will be getting it across the border—Tourin's been cracking down on smugglers recently."

Hina's curiosity took the opportunity to temporarily overcome her inclination to silence.

"How do you know where the…haul…is?"

It was the man with the topknot who answered. "Yochi. She's a farseer—she keeps an eye out for certain things that are in high demand. In this case, dragon scales—very rare and valuable."

Hina didn't know who Yochi was, but she nodded her thanks and stayed quiet.

"Thank you, Soukan," said Kirin. "Now, if you'll all look here…"

He pulled out a map and showed them the proposed path, pointing out probable dangers and obstacles along the way.

"We leave on the morning. Be ready at daybreak."

Everyone nodded and left to get ready.

As she walked out, leaving Kirin and the topknot-man conversing in low voices, Hina couldn't help but feel just a twinge of excitement.

Was this another sign of trust?


	14. Departure

Author's note: Sorry it's late. I kind of lost track of what day it was.

* * *

><p>Chapter 14: Departure<p>

The small group left the cave base at dawn.

It would take them several days to reach the border, without even accounting for the time it would take to get to the place where the scales were being auctioned off, so they packed light and moved fast. The weather was nice, though, so the trip was quite pleasant.

At one point, Hina found herself walking next to the man with the topknot—Soukan—so she asked him about dragon scales.

"It's not a metaphor," he said in response to her first question. "They really are the scales of dragons. They are rare, true, but dragons still exist in the wild places of the Makai, if you care to look for them."

Hina considered.

"And other creatures considered mythical?"

"Most are real. I saw a kirin, once." The man paused, lost in the memory.

"What was it like?" asked Hina.

"It was many times my size, though so gentle that it didn't bend a single blade of grass. It had the scaled back and tail of a dragon, but the feet of a deer, a single winding horn in the center of its forehead, with a mane of fire."

Soukan smiled slightly at the memory. "It looked straight at me. I was mesmerized, and followed it for quite a ways. I was so focused on it that I missed my footing and took a bad fall."

"I rather thought the kirin was supposed to bring good fortune."

Soukan bowed his head.

"It did."

He considered his words for a moment, and then said, "At that point, my situation could not have gotten worse…and after I saw it, I gained the chance to make it better."

Hina nodded slightly, and, remembering Aijou's words, did not press for details.

She spent the rest of the day walking in a companionable silence with the others, until it was time to make camp.

Camp on this small mission was nowhere near as elaborate as the one they'd had set up outside Mashou City. Indeed, since it was right in the middle of the dry season, they didn't even have tents, just a small fire to sleep around.

They all helped gather the firewood, and Kirin started the fire with a touch of his hand.

"All right," said Kirin as they gathered around the fire to eat the stew that Zougeiro—the man with the blank white eyes—had prepared for them. "Hina, you'll take the first watch—just stay awake for the first two hours and wake us if anything goes wrong. I'll take second watch, Shizuku, third; Anei, fourth." Though Hina hadn't caught that last name before, the only one left whose name she didn't know was the shadowy man with the pitch black skin and the stark white markings.

* * *

><p>Night watch was boring.<p>

There really wasn't any getting around that.

Hina was already tired, and sitting staring at the hypnotic forms in the fire while trying to stay aware of her surroundings wasn't helping. So she turned away from the fire, instead spending the time recreating the ice-plants of her homeland in miniature. She built their familiar forms, sweeping out the sharp curves that felt so much more natural than the hard lines of knives and swords, dividing each leafblade into smaller leaflets, and then dividing them again until they disappeared into edges that were deceptively feathery.

The task helped the time pass easily enough that she didn't even realize her two hours had passed until she heard Kirin stir and rise behind her.

When he came up to relieve her, he saw the sculpture of the _chimi_ plant she'd just finished, so much more elaborate than the one she'd shown Juhi.

"It's the fruit you tried," she said, feeling the need to say something. It was a strange thing, really, that had been growing on her as she grew more accustomed to outsider patterns of speech. Most of them seemed uncomfortable with long periods of silence.

Kirin studied it. "I didn't realize you could form something so elaborate."

"Only if I have the time."

"Still, it's quite impressive."

"Thank you," said Hina, rising to let him take her place.

He took her place, but as she turned to head back towards her place by the fire, she paused.

"Have you ever seen a kirin?"

Kirin raised his head, looking surprised.

"I'm…not sure. I might have caught a glimpse of one once. Soukan claims that's what it was."

It was Hina's turn to be surprised. "You were his...opportunity?" she asked. "You brought him into the group after he saw it?"

Kirin looked down. "There…wasn't a group before him. Just me and my sister."

Hina's lips parted, though she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to ask, but he spoke again.

"Perhaps I'll tell you about it someday," he said with a slight smile.

It was clearly a dismissal, as well as a warning that she was edging in on personal territory.

"Sorry."

"Quite all right."

Hina lay down, further away from the fire than the others, not bothering to wrap up in a blanket, and tried not to be curious about a story that really wasn't any of her business.

* * *

><p>The next morning found Hina a little more drained than usual, with less than six hours sleep under her belt. She was starting to think that maybe it hadn't been a very good idea to waste her energy on sculpture. Perhaps she ought to take up a hobby that that didn't involve youki.<p>

In any case, she was not called upon to fight either that day or the next, and she wasn't on the watch the next night, so she had a chance to catch up on her sleep.

The trip was mostly quiet, broken by occasional conversation or laughter. On the morning of the fourth day, the monotony was broken by a small city that they passed through, and barely had time to get reestablished before they finally started to approach the borders of Tourin that afternoon. She had learned by then that Tourin was the country ruled by the rather idiosyncratic figure of Raizen the Mazoku, though most of the orders nowadays come from his second, Hokushin.

Hina wondered as she walked if the concept of being part of a group of smugglers bothered her.

After all, they were breaking the law, or about to, and she had always been the sort to stay well within the bounds of legality.

Well, with one exception, though leaving Koorime had never technically been outlawed.

She finally decided, though, that it didn't bother her. After all, she had a rather long view of outside politics, dating back many thousands of years. She could only see the struggles out here as part of history, which was somehow different from whatever conception of "real life" she had. From that perspective, what one particular ruler wanted at one particular time didn't really matter that much, as long as she could get away with it.

She didn't think that particular thought would come back to haunt her.

They had just crossed into Tourin when they came across a group of border guards. Kirin greeted them, unworried. After all, they weren't doing anything illegal yet. The border guards, after giving them a once-over, let them go untouched.

They got their bearings, and turned toward the city the farseer had indicated. The wind had picked up, and they were walking straight into it, which kept getting into their eyes.

"Have you ever seen a phoenix?" Hina asked Soukan, still curious about the creatures she'd thought were purely mythical.

"There was…" he started, but trailed off when Shizuku stopped, sniffing the air suspiciously.

"What is it?" asked Kirin.

"They're…getting closer again," she said, puzzled.

"What?" said Kirin, wheeling around.

"Your fox must be more useful under better circumstances, like a complete lack of wind, and maybe nothing stronger-smelling than a couple of oak trees."

The leader of the border guards stepped up from behind them, wearing the grey uniform and shaved head that marked him as a servant of Raizen.

Shizuku growled, though Hina wasn't sure if it was the insult to her sense of smell, the possessive pronoun, or just the threatening air the man gave off.

The guard didn't wait for a more articulate response, turning instead directly to Kirin.

"You know, I didn't recognize you at first, Kirin of Tenkashi." Kirin's lips twisted, revealing his teeth. "It's been a while—your picture is a bit out of date. But you're definitely the same person."

He straightened up, feeling important. "There is a warrant out for your arrest, and that of anyone travelling with you. So would you like to come quietly, or shall we do this the hard way?"

Kirin's eyes flicked to Shizuku. She inhaled and grimaced, twitching her shoulder in a tiny shrug.

Realizing what he wanted, Hina let her senses wash over the area, picking out the energy signatures of the enemy guards, spending an ounce of concentration wondering at the apparent fact that no one else could do so.

"Twelve."

Kirin's eyes widened fractionally, but he nodded.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to take the second option."


	15. Loyalty

Chapter 15: Loyalty

* * *

><p>Hina felt like she had been fighting for hours.<p>

Almost all of her attention was focused on avoiding the next blow, a little more on getting in a blow of her own, and the tiny amount that was left on staying close to the others, who were trying desperately to make it back across the border.

Hina froze one attacker's feet to the ground and jumped back, striking at another. She gripped her weapon more firmly, snatching an instant to catch her bearings.

She stood near the edge of the fray—the good edge, fortunately, closer to the border. She had formed a basic staff of ice in desperation, not having time to form a decent blade, and had been using it to fend off attackers.

Another leapt towards her, wielding something that looked like black lightning. Hina dodged and struck, causing him to stumble.

She was slowing down. She really couldn't keep this up much longer.

With a sudden burst of energy, Hina let out a wave of cold, momentarily freezing several opponents solid, and made a dash for the border.

White-eyes took the opportunity provided by the distraction and made it over at almost the same moment.

When they saw their companions safely across, the others in turn leapt back to relative safely—relative, since long-range attacks were apparently still fair game. Once they were across, they took off running to get back to a safer distance.

Once they were out of range, they stopped to regroup. Hina had to lean over and rest her hands on her knees.

"Anyone hurt?" asked Kirin. His eyes flicked over them as each denied it. Then they went over everyone again…and again. And then they took on a worried cast.

"Where's Soukan?"

Hina looked up sharply, only now realizing that only six of them stood there. The man with the topknot was nowhere to be seen.

"Shizuku!" Kirin turned sharply to the fox. "Is he near?"

The vixen sniffed the air, brow wrinkling. "Can't tell. All I'm getting is blowback from the wind."

Kirin wheeled to her next. "Hina! Can you do what you did before?"

Hina closed her eyes. The signatures were there, but… "It's too far away. I can sense the guards, but I can't count them and I can't pick out an individual signature."

Kirin cursed under his breath—at least, Hina assumed so—and turned back toward the ground they'd fought so hard to cover.

"Wait," said Hina. "We shouldn't—"

Kirin wheeled on her, eyes alight in a way that might not have been entirely metaphorical.

"You think we should just leave him to his fate?" he snapped.

"No, but we should wait—"

"Wait? He's been taken prisoner!"

"And we're exhausted!" For the first time she could remember, Hina raised her own voice in anger. "If we go now, we'll be at a severe disadvantage! You'll be risking all of us!"

"Stay and sleep if you want," Kirin said, with barely controlled anger. "I'll be rescuing my friend."

He turned and headed back toward the border. The others followed him, though more than one gave her a sympathetic glance.

Hina closed her eyes and composed herself, and then followed the rest of them. It was foolish, but still…perhaps they were right. Perhaps this was something as necessary as it was illogical.

* * *

><p>It took them a little longer to get back, since they were no longer fleeing for their lives, but it wasn't long before the energy took on enough solidity in Hina's mind to count. There were fourteen—that was the twelve guards, plus the commander, plus, presumably, their captured teammate. She had no idea which was which, however—she didn't have a clear idea of what Soukan's aura felt like.<p>

"Back for some more?" asked the commander of the guards coldly.

"Oh, we'll be on our way again soon enough." Kirin's voice was clipped.

"Maybe some of you…then again, maybe not. After all, you're even more outnumbered this time around, and you barely got away by turning tail and running."

Kirin's hand shot forward and grabbed the man's collar, bursting into flame as it did so. "Where is he?" he demanded.

The man only smiled. "You'll find out soon enough."

Kirin struck, but the man twisted away and shot out a leg to try and trip him. Kirin rolled, avoiding his opponent's next attack at the same time. The rest of the border guards took this as their cue to join the fray.

Almost all of them…

Three signatures still hung back.

Hina ducked and wove her way to Kirin. "This way!"

When he didn't immediately follow her, she reached out and grasped his searingly hot arm. "Trust me."

Their eyes met for an instant, and then he turned and let off a blast that knocked his attacker into a nearby tree.

"Show me."

She pulled him towards the stationary signatures, still hidden by the forest. But when several guards broke away to follow them, she changed her plans.

"There," she said, pointing. "Straight in that direction. Go."

Then she turned back, forming a slippery sheet of ice with thrust of her hands. He wouldn't need that long. She just had to hold them off for a few minutes.

* * *

><p>An eternity later, Hina had somehow ended up near the center of the fray. She was near the end of her strength…what was taking him so long?<p>

When she had a chance to glance back toward the place he'd disappeared to, she finally caught a glimpse of him again.

In that instant, she knew something was wrong.

They were both there, but Soukan's limbs were heavy, barely supporting any of his weight. Even from that distance, she could tell he was in bad shape.

Hina ducked again, thanking whoever was listening for her short stature, and tried to make her way towards the two. Even as she did, though, Soukan slipped to the side and fell heavily to the ground.

Hina couldn't hear anything but the sounds of battle as the scene played out before her. She saw Kirin drop to his knees beside his friend, grasping one of his hands. She saw Soukan try to raise his head—was he speaking?

And then his head slipped back against the grass.

Kirin's shoulders shook as he held Soukan's hand to his chest.

Feeling like she was intruding on something private, Hina turned away.

That saved her life.

She caught a glimpse of a guard bearing down on her, and she instinctively ducked and counterattacked.

_Sharp._

That was her onlythought, and her ice responded instantly with a curved edge that cut straight through the guard's attack, and then his body.

Hina stood, surprised, several different reactions coursing through her.

But she didn't have time to work through them right now.

She glanced around. Their shadow-demon and white-eyes—whose names she was still having trouble with—were fighting back to back, the former flinging fistfuls of dark energy, while the latter was apparently responsible for the guard being tossed around in the air above them.

Shizuku was doing fine against her opponent—but she was so focused on him that she didn't notice the other guard coming up behind her.

Hina moved to do something, she wasn't sure what, but someone else was faster.

"Shizuku!" Hyoujin yelled, and turned away from his own opponent towards her. With a grunt and an upward jerk of his hands, the ground under her second attacker buckled and shifted upward, knocking him away from her. It was the greatest display of earthmoving Hina had seen from him yet.

And probably for a good reason.

Hyoujin's eyes rolled up, and he collapsed to his knees.

"Hyoujin!" shouted Shizuku, an edge of panic to her voice. She leapt away from her own attacker, trying to get to him.

She was too late.

Hyoujin's opponent, with a cry of triumph, thrust his sword straight through Hyoujin's chest.


	16. Firestorm

Author's note: I do apologize for missing the last two updates…if there's actually anyone to apologize to, heh. I'm really not happy with how these chapters are turning out, so constructive criticism is especially helpful here. I'm really fumbling in the dark with this story, so any illumination would be greatly appreciated! And without further ado, here is your (long-awaited?) chapter.

* * *

><p>Chapter 16: Firestorm<p>

Hina watched in horror as the soldier's sword slid through Hyoujin's chest.

The guard laughed as he tugged his sword back out, watching with glee as the earth-mover's blood stained his element.

He didn't have long to savor his victory, however.

Shizuku, with a cry of rage, threw herself across the distance that separated them and sank her claws into his heart.

She tossed his body aside, looking far more feral than Hina had ever seen her, and stood guard over Hyoujin, taking out several demons who thought they smelled an opportunity.

Kirin carefully laid his dead friend's body down and stood.

When he turned towards the rest of them, Hina got a look at his eyes.

What she saw shook her to the core.

If she'd thought they looked fiery before, she been wrong. They were utterly red, pupilless and flickering with rage.

"_No more_," he muttered.

Then, louder: "No more."

Then he took a step forward and raised his arms.

"NO! MORE!"

Fire leapt from his hands, rushing and swirling and eager for the kill.

It rushed around the nearby trees, engulfing them in flame and joining them to his desperate energy.

Their remaining opponents dropped their weapons and ran for their lives—and some of them even succeeded.

But Kirin didn't stop.

He strode after them, eyes glowing red, filled with an expression of unadulterated hatred.

Behind him, the burning forest surrounded his companions.

* * *

><p>Shizuku knelt down by Hyoujin, touching his shoulder with a trembling hand.<p>

He twitched and gave feeble moan.

Shizuku buried her face in his shoulder, shaking.

Hina started. He was alive…?

If he still lived, perhaps there was something she could do.

However, before she could think about that, she had to consider the fact that the forest was on fire around them.

A burning branch broke off above Hina's head, which she blocked with her ice. Their other two companions seemed to be able to protect themselves, but Hyoujin—and for that matter, Shizuku—weren't in any shape to deal with this.

They had to leave.

They had to get out, _now._

"Kirin!" she cried in desperation.

He was following the fleeing guards, still flinging fire after them in a murderous rage.

For a moment, she thought he was too far into the madness of revenge…but then he paused and turned back.

His face was still full of rage and hate and pain, but his eyes were normal again.

And when they took in the scene behind him, they widened in horror.

The forest around them was blackened and smoldering, where it wasn't still actively on fire. The flames had jumped from tree to tree and were now threatening to cut off their escape.

Kirin looked back towards Soukan's body, and then to Hyoujin.

Clenching his fists and mouthing something Hina couldn't catch, he turned away from his dead friend and back to those who were still living.

"Come on. Let's get out of here," he said tonelessly.

The man with the white eyes came up to Hyoujin, and he and Shizuku picked him up, managing to hold him between them. He was unconscious, but he still groaned when they touched him.

Shizuku had stopped crying, focusing on the task in from of her, but her hands still shook.

Kirin took the lead, fighting fire with fire, shooting dangerous branches out of the way and absorbing open flames into himself.

Moving as quickly as they could, they crossed the border again, and then found a small stream and found the first suitable campsite on the other side of it.

Shizuku and Zougeiro laid Hyoujin down on the small flat area they'd found, and Kirin started another fire—this one carefully contained within a circle of rocks.

Hina knelt down by Hyoujin's side again. Now that they were out of danger, she might be able to help him.

She had never used her healing powers on anyone else, but there was little choice.

Closing her eyes, she focused on getting a clear picture of what was wrong.

It took an effort to wrap her mind around the image provided by someone else's energy, and it wasn't anywhere as clear as what she could get from her own body.

Still, it was enough to make her blood run colder than usual.

It was bad.

With for more of an effort than it would take for herself, she made the torn flesh knit back together, trying desperately to keep Hyoujin from bleeding out as he lay.

But that that wasn't the worst of it.

Even if she could manage to stop all the bleeding …

Hyoujin's youki, normally a cheerful yellow, was stained with an ugly purplish-green. She wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but she knew it wasn't good. Poison, maybe?

Poison…that stirred a memory, which was only intensified when she looked up and saw the fox sitting across from her.

_Foxfire._

Koyu's words came back to her.

_Yeah, he can do that. He calls it 'foxfire'. He can do it to people too…_

"Kirin," she called.

He looked up, having been buried in his own thoughts.

"Something's wrong. It might be poison. Can you…?"

Kirin's eyes were blank, but after a moment, he roused himself and came over.

"You'd better move back," he said, expressionlessly.

When she did, he raised a hand, and a swirling yellow _something_ began to churn around Hyoujin's prone form.

Shizuku watch anxiously, while Hina's brow furrowed.

True, the purpleness was fading from his aura, but the ugly, putrid green wasn't moving.

This wasn't good.

She had no idea how to do anything to help that—didn't even know what it meant—and if Kirin's foxfire didn't help…

Kirin lowered his hand.

"You'll be all right now," whispered Shizuku.

Hina didn't say anything, but the fox happened to glance up. When she saw her face, Shizuku paled.

"He…got rid of the poison, didn't he?"

"Yes…"

"Yes…but?"

When Hina didn't immediately answer, Shizuku's lips tightened.

"What is it." It wasn't a question.

"I don't know. If it's not poison, it might be a biological agent."

"Will he be all right?"

Hina hesitated.

"I don't know."

Strictly speaking, that was true.

"Tell me."

Hina closed her eyes, seeing again what she'd felt in his aura.

"He's lost a lot of blood, and his energy is considerably weakened."

"And?"

"And…whatever was on the sword is weakening him further."

Shizuku's eyes begged an answer that she dreaded.

"I'm…I'm not sure if he'll make it through the night."

Shizuku looked stunned, and then her eyes filled with tears. She turned away from Hina, hunching instead over Hyoujin's pale form, and started crying.

Helpless, Hina stood there, hearing her weep.

Then she turned and walked away from camp, desperate to get away from the terrible grief her words had just caused.

* * *

><p>As Hina walked away from the camp, Shizuku's quiet sobs rang in her ears.<p>

Hina shook her head. This shouldn't be happening. This wasn't right. She suddenly found that the exact nature of Shizuku and Hyoujin's relationship didn't matter anymore. It was apparent now that each was the most important thing in the world to the other, and that was what mattered.

She had had a most important person, once…

Suddenly, guilt reared up and joined its companions worry and sorrow. All three danced around her, blending into each other in a sickening whirl.

She had left her best friend…Shizuku was about to lose her important person…Hyoujin was _dying!_

A strangled sob escaped her, joined by a sensation she had never felt before.

Her eyes…were _wet_.

As the wheel of thoughts in her head kept turning from guilt to sorrow and back again, the sensation grew, until she couldn't hold it in any more.

A single tear escaped her eye and fell to the ground with a soft _clink_.

Hina opened her eyes and stared at it.

As she stared, her expression turned from one of utter shock, to one of surprised contemplation, and finally settled on one that might actually have been hope.

Maybe…

Maybe she hadn't done everything she could do yet.


End file.
